


Promises Kept, Promises Broken

by hinata22



Series: This Time Next Year [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-03-04 22:15:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13374159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hinata22/pseuds/hinata22
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke are happy together, they've worked hard to address their previous communication problems. It is not always easy, but they never doubt their love for each other.But in the violent ninja world they live in, even the closest couple can face challenges that test their relationship.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of testing the water to see if people are interested in seeing what happened after 'This Time, Next Year' finished. I have more ideas but liked the way it ended so am torn whether to continue or not?
> 
> I think you can read this without reading the first part, but am not certain as I obviously have the whole plot in my head and don't know if it makes sense coming to it blank. If someone does do that, please let me know in feedback how it works if you have a moment.
> 
> Thank you so much as ever for giving my stories your precious time, I will keep saying how much I appreciate it, because I truly cannot say it enough times to convey how much it means to me.

Sasuke stroked his hand through his boyfriend’s hair. Naruto slept peacefully, his body sprawled over the raven’s. The early morning sun was beginning to steal through the window and light their bedroom up in shades of reds and oranges. Sasuke knew he should close his eyes and try to capture a couple of hours rest before the responsibilities of the new day started, but it was difficult to shut his senses off from the warmth of the blonde against his skin, the sounds of his gentle snoring, and the sweet aroma of their scents mingled together.

It was in moments like these he was struck anew with the sharp shock of how he’d almost lost his love, and the knowledge that he didn’t deserve to have this unique bright shining man in his bed.

They’d spent a long time talking it out, but now neither of them really mentioned it. Naruto was always someone who loved to chat over happy memories and could be incredibly sentimentally, however, in other ways he lived fully in the moment. Likewise, he would drag Sasuke through the dirt, and bicker constantly about little inconsequential things, but considered it dishonourable once he’d forgiven his boyfriend, to ever bring up in anger the terrible year Sasuke had subjected him to.

But in the small hours of the morning, Sasuke tormented his own conscience enough for both of them. His insecurities had almost torn them apart. The truth could never change; he had walked out on Naruto like a coward in the night and humiliated the one person in the world who deserved to be treated as if he was made of gold dust.

He told himself that if Naruto had forgiven him, then he should forgive himself. He knew things weren’t that emotionally simple, but right now he tried to accept that statement, as he really did need to sleep. Jiraiya had left yesterday and had been full of praise for how fast Naruto had progressed in a month of intensive training. Sasuke hadn’t needed to be told, he could feel the increasing power emanating from his boyfriend and was struggling to keep up with the man he now felt was walking in front of him. His boyfriend had always been strong, but it’d been wild and chaotic, now there was a control and constancy to it that simultaneously made Sasuke proud, awe- stricken, competitive and incredibly turned-on.

As a treat for how hard and uncomplaining Naruto had been while working long days with Jiraiya, Sasuke had promised him a complete weekend of rest with Sasuke caring entirely for Lil Tsu Tsu, their young daughter. She was beautiful, but did require a high level of attention. Her unusual conception and her unusual birth were perhaps contributing to how slowly she was developing for a baby of such innately powerful shinobi. Or in truth, how slowly she was developing for a baby, full stop. Sometimes she seemed to be getting worse at things rather than physically progressing. She wasn’t yet trying to move herself, and sometimes even seemed to grow so tired through just sitting propped up that she lost head control. Her vocabulary consisted of two words, Naruto wasn’t daddy but ‘daggy’ and Sasuke wasn’t Pop but, the not entirely Uchiha sounding, ‘Poggy’. But she smiled and she laughed, and when she was having an energetic day she clapped her hands. And when Naruto and Sasuke looked into her face they saw pure love reflected back at them and both were certain that she understood almost everything they said to her.

Although Sasuke had made the offer of total rest as a gift for Naruto, he was looking forward to being completely in control of baby care, and also pampering Naruto. Or he would be if he wasn’t fatigued and finally could get some rest.

As soon as Sasuke had offered Naruto the weekend off, Naruto’s blue eyes had sparkled even brighter than normal, and he immediately asked, ‘Does that mean I can sleep in as late as I like?’ Sasuke should have known right then what his boyfriend wanted, but he’d got distracted talking to Itachi about when his brother had time to fit in some more training sessions for him.

What Naruto wanted was clear as soon as they went to bed together though. Without having to worry about getting up himself, and knowing that Sasuke could function perfectly on a very low amount of rest, Naruto saw it as free reign to have a sex session that was rampant and exhausting even by their standards.

The blonde had fallen asleep immediately after his…who knows what number of orgasms, Naruto was surely the most virulent lover possible even within the body stretching madness of the ninja world. But Sasuke had lain awake, appreciating holding Naruto and mentally treasuring how perfect his boyfriend, daughter and brother were.

Now, he truly did need to get some sleep though, he told himself for the umpteenth time, but on this occasion he let both his happiness and his doubts fade away and waited to enter the peace of sleep. But Naruto stirred violently in his arms and started crying out in a broken, cracked voice, Sasuke had never heard in the long years they’d been together.

He quickly shook the blonde awake. ‘It’s okay, it’s just a nightmare, it’s okay.’

Naruto stared at him with wide frightened eyes. ‘Sasuke, you need to promise me something…please…please… you need to promise me something.’

‘Anything, Naruto, anything.’ Sasuke stroked comforting hands up and down Naruto’s arms.

‘If it’s ever…if it’s ever…a life and death situation…a choice…like you had before…when you chose me over Itachi…’ Naruto’s voice was croaky and gasping.

‘Calm down, calm down, my Sunflower, it’s ok, we’re safe, you and Itachi are both safe, we’re all safe,’ Sasuke tried to sooth him.

‘Sasuke, please…this is so important…listen to me…if ever you have to choose between me and our daughter…always choose our daughter.’

Sasuke’s heart stopped at even the thought of having to go through something like that again. Thinking he’d signed his brother’s death warrant by sending Tsunade to help Naruto and not Itachi had been such raw inescapable pain. And then being unable to kill the baby inside Naruto even when he thought it was the only thing that would save Naruto's life. He had recurring nightmares himself about those moments. But it pained him more to think of Naruto having such visions raging through his previously peaceful sleep.

‘You said you’d promise…so promise…I need to know you’d always save Lil Tsu Tsu over me.’

Sasuke’s mouth was dry. His instincts were to put Naruto off until the morning, when they could discuss this clear minded. He didn’t want to admit it, but the world they lived in meant they needed to make these decisions when they were safe, so in the panic of war their minds did not freeze with the horror of it and end up causing more loss of life. Hopefully Naruto would forget the terror of his nightmare and not ever think of it again in the bright light of day.

As the dark eyed man had that last thought, his chest constricted. How many times had he deliberately put off conversations with Naruto, or purposely distracted the blonde from difficult issues so that Sasuke didn’t have to face them?

All the pain Sasuke regretted causing Naruto stemmed from Sasuke choosing to bury and hide things rather than address them. Just because he refused to talk about it, didn’t make it any less real. He _had_ to have learnt that lesson from everything they’d gone through.

He took a long breath and spoke in a quiet voice. ‘Usuratonkachi, our love borders on mad obsession in the most gentle of times. I cannot guarantee that I’ll be capable of acting rationally in a situation where both you and our child are in danger, but I promise to the best of my ability I’ll respect your wishes and…save Little Tsunade over you.’ An image of Naruto cutting his own stomach open to free their baby appeared so vividly in Sasuke’s mind that he almost felt he could hear the ink wings of Sai’s birds flapping.

‘Thank you, Sas, thank you.’ Naruto’s body lost its tension and he settled his head back on the Uchiha’s chest. ‘I’ll do the same for you,’ the blonde murmured and fell back to sleep.

Sasuke played a hand through Naruto’s hair. His boyfriend seemed so peaceful again, had Sasuke’s tired mind imagined the whole thing? No, he just wanted to believe he had. He raised his head to breathe deeply in the warm scent of Naruto’s hair and kiss his lover’s hair. Sasuke knew he wouldn’t sleep at all tonight, but right now he didn’t care.

He thought of Naruto and his daughter and his brother, and further out to his brother’s wife, Mei, and Sasuke’s five nieces and nephews.

 _My life is perfect_ , he repeated to himself like a mantra. _My life is perfect_.

If he said it enough times, he could drown out the little boy inside him crying out, _It won’t last, you don’t deserve it, it’ll all be taken away from you, walk away before it hurts too much_.

‘My life is perfect,’ Sasuke said out loud. It sounded certain filling the silent room, as if it was an indisputable fact that could and would never change.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This starts approximately three years after the ending of Part One 'This Time, Next Year', Naruto and Sasuke are still living in Kirigakure, where Mei is Mizukage, and importantly for our characters, married to the ever wise and wonderful Itachi, who keeps a loving eye over the well being of his two little brothers. Itachi and Mei have five children together, but I mention that as an aside, I have no idea whether they're ever going to appear as actual named characters in this story!
> 
> In this chapter Kiba and Hinata are travelling up from Konoha with their own little child, Himawari, and Naruto and Sasuke are preparing(ish) for their friend's visit.
> 
> Little warning: things may get a tiny bit kinky, this is Naruto and Sasuke as a couple after all, but in my opinion this chapter is mainly plot driven.

‘Sas! We need to prepare for Kiba, Hinata and little Himawari’s visit.’ Naruto tried, and failed, to prise Sasuke’s fingers way from where they were gripping his waist.

Sasuke paused from nipping Naruto’s neck only long enough to whisper. ‘They’re not arriving until this afternoon, we have plenty of time.’

‘Lil Tsu Tsu will wake up soon.’ Naruto tried, and failed, not to whine with lust as Sasuke bit down hard on the blonde’s sensitive skin.

Sasuke flicked his tongue over his lover’s ear. ‘Our daughter may have my eyes, but we both know she’s a lazybones like you and would sleep all day if we let her.’

‘I’m not lazy!’ Naruto tried, and failed, to twist around and show Sasuke how angry he was at the insult. Instead, all that somehow happened was that he pushed his bottom into Sasuke’s groin. He continued to try and protest, although his voice transformed from indignant and offended in his head, to husky and turned on when he spoke. ‘Even Itachi said I trained harder than you, and that my body was in the finest shape of any ninja he’d ever known.’

‘Hnnnn.’ Sasuke fingers tightened on Naruto’s waist.

‘I’m all dressed. I’ve had a shower and everything. We should be doing housework…or something. Weren’t you going to like prepare a welcome feast for our friends?’ Naruto reached behind, grabbed Sasuke’s hips and managed to push them an inch or two away from his ass. But his boyfriend moaned as if Naruto had succumbed to being seduced.

‘We have got time for a quickie,’ Sasuke stated as if it was an undeniable truth.

‘Last time I agreed to that, your _quickie_ lasted three hours.’

Sasuke removed his hands from Naruto’s body. Naruto sucked his lips in to trap his groan of disappointment in his mouth.

Sasuke caressed his fingers over Naruto’s, Naruto still held onto Sasuke’s hips, telling himself it was to prevent the other man suddenly thrusting against him, rather than because he was reluctant to let go of his boyfriend.

‘Are you saying you’d prefer to do three hours of cleaning and tidying than have three hours of me touching and pleasuring you?’ Sasuke spoke slowly pronouncing every word carefully. ‘Tell me you’d rather be on your knees scrubbing the floor than on your knees sucking my cock.’ As he said the word ‘cock’, Sasuke put his hands over Naruto’s and slid them around to rest them on his groin.

The Uchiha’s clothes did little, if nothing, to disguise Sasuke’s full erection.

Naruto bit his lip and closed his eyes, he could visualise the perfection of Sasuke’s dick as if he was actually right now licking and kissing it.

‘I want to be sucking your cock, you know that, teme. I’m just trying to be good.’

‘Oh, you’re always good, dobe. Especially when you’re bad.’ Sasuke sensually murmured. Then in a hard commanding voice, he ordered, ‘Tell me you want me to fuck you,’

‘Nooo. I don’t want you to fuck me, I want to prepare the guest room.’ But Naruto didn’t resist the firm hand placed in the centre of his back pushing him down over the bed. ‘Saaaassss, there must be so many things we need to do.’

Sasuke took hold of Naruto’s wrists and pinned them above the blonde’s head. He leaned over and breathed in his boyfriend’s ear. ‘The only thing I need to do is _you_.’ He thrust his hips hard against Naruto’s ass. ‘Tell me how much you want me to fuck you.’

‘No! I want to do cleaning…and more cleaning. I really love me some…cleaning.’

Sasuke stood upright and pulled both Naruto’s jogging pants and boxers down in one smooth movement.

‘My sweet little dobe, after all the many years we’ve been together you should know by now, that the more stubborn you are.’ Sasuke bought the palm of his hand down hard on the centre of Naruto’s right buttock.

Naruto managed to contain his moan of pleasure, but could do nothing to stop the pre cum glistening at the head of his cock.

‘The more I’ll make you beg.’ Sasuke slapped across Naruto’s left buttock. ‘Tell me you want me.’

‘No. I’m not going to say it, teme. You’re just wasting tidying time.’ With his face pushed into the sheets, Naruto half sighed and half smiled. In honesty he wasn’t too surprised that him trying to be the sensible and responsible one had ended up with him bent over the bed, raising his hips hoping Sasuke would spank him again, but how quickly it happened was a little shaming to a guy’s ego. All he could do now was hope to regain some points off Sasuke by refusing to ask to be fucked.

Sasuke hadn’t spanked his boyfriend for a long time, but he had lost none of his technique. It was as if he was in Naruto’s mind, knowing when to keep the rhythm constant and steady and when to leave pauses and vary the pressure in order to give the blonde the most intense experience.

However, Naruto held out, still refusing to ask for his boyfriend’s cock.

Sasuke changed tactic, instead of the hard thwack of flesh hitting flesh, the sound filling the room was Naruto’s moans as Sasuke gently ran his fingers over the crease between his buttocks.

‘Say you want me, and I’ll obey your every command,’ Sasuke breathed seductively.

‘Nooo…I want to obey you…No! I mean…I mean… I want to do housework and…and…’ Naruto’s voice descended into heavy panting as Sasuke dropped to his knees behind him and started flicking his tongue around Naruto’s hole.

Naruto’s top was wet with sweat even though he was doing nothing more physical than writhing under Sasuke’s sensual attention.

Occasionally Sasuke stopped tonguing Naruto and commanded, ‘Tell me how much you want me inside you.’ Naruto replied with grunts that might have been kindly interpreted as ‘no’, and Sasuke continued teasing his boyfriend.

It was taking an incredible amount of willpower not to come, let alone continue to resist Sasuke’s demands that he beg to be fucked. With his lust centred brain, and most of his blood seemingly taken from non-important things like his limbs in order to maintain the more important function of keeping his cock hard and twitching, Naruto was struggling to work out which would make Sasuke less intolerably arrogant: making Naruto climax when the blonde was trying not to; or, Naruto giving in and pleading to be pounded?

Naruto heard the sound of Sasuke undoing his belt and breathed an audible sigh of relief. ‘Thank you.’ He looked over his shoulder at Sasuke’s smirking intolerably arrogant face. ‘I didn’t mean _thank you_ , not in the normal way…don’t think I’m thanking you for fucking me…I am doing the totally opposite of that…I am thanking you for ending this stupid battle of wills thing and just, yaknow, getting on with things like normal people do. That is definitely not me asking you to fuck me by the way. It is only me…like…stating facts.’

‘Well, I _will_ unquestionably thank you, dobe. Firstly for possessing such an incredibly desirable ass and allowing me to play with it all this while without once insisting we move on to full blown, hard core, rougher than you can imagine it, sex.’ Sasuke put his hands firmly on Naruto’s cheeks and pulled them apart. For a long moment he just gazed down at the view leaving his boyfriend panting in anticipation.  ‘And secondly for clarifying that you are not going to ask me to fuck you.’

Sasuke took one of his hands off Naruto’s ass and positioned his cock in the cleft of Naruto’s buttocks. Then he returned his hand to its previous position and squeezed Naruto’s muscular flesh around his erection. He rocked his hips gently backwards and forwards.

‘Do…you…need…me…to…get…lube?’ Naruto hinted between soft moans of lust and whines of frustration as Sasuke’s hardness rubbed against his most sensitive spot but did not press inside him.

‘Hnnnn.’ Sasuke sounded as if he was considering, but Naruto growled knowing his boyfriend more than well enough to interpret all the little variations in his ‘hnnnns’. Sasuke was teasing him, and he was enjoying teasing him.

‘I don’t think so,’ Sasuke said after an especially slow movement of his hips, leaving the head of his prick lingering in a position directly above Naruto’s entrance for an infuriatingly long time. ‘I’m very happy like this. What about you, _baby_ , are you happy? Or would you like something more?’ Sasuke took a long time pronouncing the simple syllables of ‘baby’, pouring more sensuality in the short word than should have been humanly possible.

Naruto made a high-pitched squeaking sound at the back of his throat. He could have held out. He definitely, totally, completely could have held out. But Sasuke, the man who claimed to despise every term of endearment, calling him ‘baby’ in his deepest, sexiest, most loving voice…Naruto could stand firm against an army of the most bloodthirsty rogue nin, but he could not do anything but submit to Sasuke being affectionate.

‘I want you to fuck me. I want you to fuck me long and hard. I want you to make me scream so loud that the whole of Kirigakure hears me. I want you to pound me so relentlessly that Mei sends out her special ops team to investigate what all the noise is. I want you inside me more than I want anything else in the whole world.’

‘I know,’ Sasuke smirked, stepping back and adjusting himself so his beautiful erection was once again hidden behind his fastened clothing. ‘Maybe later if I have a few minutes spare. Right now I’ve got cleaning to do. Remember, dobe, Hinata, Kiba and little Himawari are coming to stay today.’

Naruto bellowed every insult he knew at Sasuke and several he’d made up on the spot, and threw three pillows at the retreating back of his boyfriend nonchalantly walking out of the room.

After he’d shouted himself hoarse, Naruto noticed with red cheeks that more pre-cum had leaked out of him than he’d thought and was now drying on the sheets. With a growl he ripped them off and started the task of making sure their home was spotless for their guests.

 

***

Sasuke looked as if he was focused on clearing the table, with Hinata kindly helping him, but ninety nine percent of his attention was on the little group playing on the lounge floor between the two big sofas.

Kiba had started painting the distinctive Inuzuka red fang marks on Himawari’s round cheeks, they looked incongruous, but even Sasuke had to admit very cute, with Himawari’s big white eyes. She passed building blocks to the much smaller Lil Tsu Tsu, and softly directed her playmate on where to put them to help make the tower they were constructing.

His own child was smiling brightly, she definitely could shine just like Naruto did, even though she was so much quieter than her parent. Little Tsunade clashed the clans together in the same way Himawari did, with her red Uzumaki hair matched with black Uchiha eyes. Although three years into her life, she was showing none of the expected ninja skills. Naruto and Sasuke had privately admitted to each other that they weren’t disappointed that their only child might not follow their career path, it’d be nice if she found safer options in her life, there were plenty of people around her to keep her protected, and she had both her ninneko and ninken (not that the puppy Naruto had gifted their baby had shown any more ability than Lil Tsu Tsu),

Catty and Doggy, as Lil Tsu Tsu had named them, were respectively trying to torment and play with Akamaru.  The big white hound was trying his best to ignore both of them, putting his paws over his eyes and making sounds between growls and snores when they got too annoying. Occasionally Naruto would shout at them to leave their guest alone, or Kiba would intervene and bat them away from his partner.

Sasuke was willing the young ninja pets to creep up on Akamaru more than they were, just on the chance that it made Kiba break away from Naruto.

Right now Kiba’s arm was so tightly around Naruto’s neck it was as if he was trying to give the blonde a headlock, Sasuke wished he _was_ giving Naruto a headlock. Sparring he could deal with, but Kiba was all physical affection, ruffling Naruto’s hair and seemingly unable to tell Naruto enough times how much he missed him and asking him when he was returning to Konoha.

Naruto was hugging Kiba back just as tightly and had, since the small family’s arrival, been detailing every little thing that had happened since they last saw each other. Often the two men were happily talking at the same time, varying their volumes between ‘loud’, ‘louder’ and ‘ear-splitting’.

Sasuke was disappointed in himself, that seeing Naruto so joyful with his friend, the Uchiha couldn’t be content, but was still plagued with the jealous possessiveness he’d had regarding Naruto since they were young teens.

He couldn’t rationalise it away, there wasn’t a single part of his conscious mind that believed Kiba was making a play for Naruto while him and Hinata looked on. And he was absolutely certain that Naruto wasn’t, and hadn’t ever, been sexually attracted to anyone but Sasuke. Yet the raven could not stop the twisting feeling in his gut, and had to contain himself from just leaving the cleaning up to Hinata so he could go over and make some sort of display that would make it clear that Naruto belonged to him.

The best control he could manage was forcing himself to leave the room and take the dishes to the kitchen.

Hinata came with him and gave the shy smile that indicated she wanted to talk.

Sasuke longed to run back to the lounge and check up on Kiba and Naruto, even though he could hear them both chatting at each other from here about what was the right age to start training a child with shuriken. Hardly romantic. And with all the talking going on there was definitely no time to kiss.

Sasuke inwardly sighed, he couldn’t even imagine Naruto and Kiba kissing, but still his jealousy remained governing his emotions.

He spoke kindly to Hinata though. ‘I’m glad you could come. It’s a pleasure to see you all again.’

‘Thank you for inviting us, Sasuke. I know house guests are not your…’

‘I will never forget everything you did for us after Little Tsunade was born. You are always welcome in my home.’

A little colour warmed the woman’s cheeks. ‘It is what any mother would do, I just happened to be the one who was available and knew you best.’ She gave a small giggle. ‘Naruto knows me perhaps too well after he was there and delivered Himawari. I’d have…without him…’

Sasuke gave a nod. ‘I know. Don’t think of the other options. He was there.’

There was a small pause in the conversation.

Then Hinata rushed out. ‘Will you come home to Konoha soon?’

Sasuke shrugged. ‘All our family is here. Besides Naruto and I’ve decided that with the things that were said at her birth, we want Little Tsunade to be stronger before we think about returning.’

‘It was only a small minority who said those cruel things,’ Hinata said.

‘Harsh words carry immense power to scar. It only takes one voice to tell her she’s evil because she has two fathers, for her to suffer the same pain Naruto felt as a child being ostracised from the village.’

‘But, it’s not the same at all, Lil Tsu Tsu is so loved and is not an orphan left alone. Even if a few people were mean, she would learn that they were worthless and she doesn’t need to listen to them. One of Naruto’s biggest kindnesses has always been to teach people to stand firm in who they are and not be…’

‘Hinata, what is wrong?’ Sasuke cut across her. It was not like Hinata to press a point so far.

Hinata clasped her hands together. ‘Now Shikamaru is living with Temari in Sunagakure, there isn’t many of us…original team members left. Do you ever think how your Team 7 is the only one with all the people still alive? And since Shino died and Naruto has been here with you…you’ve noticed how happy…maybe even…a bit clingy… Kiba has been to see Naruto? It’s been difficult for him without any close male friends.’

‘He has you,’ Sasuke said with a frown.

Hinata gave a small timid laugh. ‘Not everyone can be like you and be completely content with their romantic partner and no one else. Most people need a bit of variety, someone else to socialise with, however much they love each other.’

‘He has you,’ Sasuke repeated. He knew people were different to him, his long term partner was completely different to him, loving to socialise and attend all the parties Sasuke viewed as a chore, but Naruto would never find things _difficult_ as long as Sasuke was his constant companion.

‘Never mind,’ Hinata said quietly. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned anything. I know you’ll come back when you’re ready.’

Sasuke gave her the quickest hug it was possible for a human to give to another person. ‘Always say what’s on your mind. We’re friends, it’s important to share your feelings.’

Hinata smiled reassured. However, Sasuke was aware of the likely hypocrisy of his words. Since their disastrous year, Naruto and him had had a policy of completely and as soon as possible sharing all their thoughts, but if he told the blonde that he was jealous of the physical contact between his boyfriend and Kiba it’d just make things unnecessarily awkward. They’d bicker about Sasuke’s ongoing possessiveness, and the only result was that Naruto would be conscious of how he interacted with Kiba in a way that he wasn’t now.

Sasuke’s outward demeanour was perfectly composed, he spoke reassuringly to Hinata about how they would definitely one day return to their home village as they rejoined their partners and children in the living room. But inside he sighed at the irrationality of his emotional insecurity that created a problem when all there should be was a happy reunion with dear friends.

How ludicrous his jealousy was shown when Naruto sprung into his arms, wrapping his legs tightly around Sasuke’s waist and covering his face with exuberant kisses.

‘What are you doing, dobe?’ Sasuke said in his most annoyed tone, although he was well aware that Naruto would see through that and know by the way Sasuke was squeezing him back that the Uchiha was enjoying his spontaneous show of affection.

‘I missed you, you took ages clearing the table.’

‘You could have helped.’ Sasuke rested his hands on Naruto’s lower back, though he thought about how and where he’d touch his lover later when they were alone…although if he could maintain his level of willpower it had been fun teasing the blonde earlier…and it’d be interesting to see how long he could continue.

‘Plus I’m extra happy as Kiba said him and Hinata would love to take the kiddies out so we can have some time alone…’

Sasuke worked to maintain control of his face to not show exactly how excited he was at the prospect of having time alone with Naruto without having to be at all worried about Little Tsunade walking in on them.

‘and we can _finally_ _finally_ finalise our wedding plans.’ Naruto beamed.

‘Yeah, Uchiha, what are you waiting for?’ Kiba cried out jovially. ‘You’ve got a fine man, you better make it official with him before someone else picks him up. I made sure I married my girl as soon as possible, no way I was going to risk delaying and letting someone else discover how amazing she is.’

Hinata giggled. Naruto laughed with shining eyes.

 _Oh_ , Sasuke thought. Just _oh_.

***

‘Lock that bastard down.’ Kiba hugged Naruto tightly. Then stepped back, put his hands on the blonde’s shoulders and shook him. ‘After what he did to you before Lil Tsu Tsu was born, he should be on his knees doing every single little thing you want through this life and the next! Don’t let him fuck you around anymore, get an actual date and get the wedding _you_ want. You’re too soft, mate’

Naruto playfully flexed his muscles. ‘We’ll see if you’re still calling me soft when we spar later.’

‘Yeah, yeah, save the display for loverboy.’ Kiba laughed. ‘Better not get into any arguments with him while we’re out, because after me and Akamaru show you our new moves you’re going to need someone to kiss you better and it ain’t going to be me.’

‘It’s Hinata who’s going to be doing all the kissing, not Sasuke.’ Naruto rubbed the back of head and chuckled. ‘That sounded like a good comeback before I said it.’

‘How is it you manage to talk all those evil dudes into being good, when you can’t even manage a basic bit of banter?’

‘Rest assured, banter is not needed in conversations with mass murderers who want to kill you. They don’t tend to be the most jokey of people. Fortunately being with Sasuke means I am the world expert in dealing with grumpy bastards with evil intent.’

Kiba patted Naruto’s shoulder. ‘Hey, seriously though, Naruto, you alwaysyou’re your problems with Sasuke are history, and he seems a lot nicer than he used to be, so why all the delay with the wedding?’

Naruto grinned. ‘You can’t ask a guy a question like that and expect a proper answer when you’re just supposed to be saying goodbye to me while Hinata and Sasuke set the kids up.’

As if on cue they heard the click clack of pony hooves as Sasuke led the small horse with the two children riding on the back around the corner.

‘Give me an unproper quick answer then,’ Kiba grinned back.

‘Because I haven’t yet had enough uninterrupted time to wear him down into agreeing with me. But that’s going to change today, thanks to you and Hinata.’

Kiba chuckled. ‘You owe me.’

‘I’ll let you win when we spar and be so convincing that you’ll really believe you’re better than me.’ Naruto mimicked being exhausted and beaten, grabbing hold of Kiba’s arm as if it was the only thing keeping him upright. In a gasping voice he said, ‘You truly are the best ninja I’ve ever fought. Hinata is the luckiest lady in the world to have such a valiant and strong husband. I’m so jealous of her.’

Kiba lightly punched him backwards and they both laughed.

Then there whole attention was on the children. Sasuke went through his whole list of instructions for at least the third time that morning. Naruto thought he even saw lovely, patient, sweet Hinata roll her eyes in boredom. Kiba listened without interruption, earlier he’d kept arguing that he’d become a father before Sasuke (even if it was just by a few months) and knew how to look after a child, but he seemed to have learned that it was quicker just to let Sasuke say what he wanted to say.

Finally Kiba and Hinata were allowed to leave with Akamaru, the children riding Horsey, Catty and Doggy in tow.

Lil Tsu Tsu waved before they turned the corner out of sight and in the loudest voice Naruto or Sasuke had ever heard her use shouted out, ‘Bye Poggy! Bye Daggy!’

Naruto sensed Sasuke tensing beside him and quickly put a hand out to stop his boyfriend running after their child. ‘That’s a good sign, teme, it means she’s really excited. She probably gets bored just hanging out with us all the time.’

‘She has her cousins and her aunt and uncle and all the continuous stream of people you invite to visit us.’ Sasuke spoke in a sulky, hurt tone.

Naruto moved his arm to around the Uchiha’s waist. ‘A bit of time away will mean that she’ll be that excited when she comes back to see us.’ He nuzzled his head against Sasuke’s shoulder. ‘Won’t it be cool if she’s finding her voice and she takes after me?’

‘Hnnnn.’

Both men stood for a moment looking at the last spot where their daughter had been before she left their sight.

Sasuke kissed Naruto’s ear. ‘I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’m finding it more difficult as she gets older to let her out of my sight. I’m fine if she’s with you or Itachi, but I even had to pick her up early last week when Mei was babysitting because there was this itchy feeling under my skin.’

‘I noticed.’ Naruto ran a hand down Sasuke’s chest. ‘I kinda feel the same. Well, I don’t think anyone could ever be on your level of protectiveness, but it’s like I want to hold her all the time close and know she’s safe. I think it’s because she’s still so small and hasn’t like developed the super young prodigy Uchiha skills her cousins have.’ Naruto shrugged. ‘Actually, I think it’s just because she’s our kid and the most precious thing in the world. If she was like Itachi and being recruited for Anba when she’s like two or whatever, I’d still want to be snuggling her into bed and rocking her to sleep.’

‘Cleaning the blood of rogue nin from out under her fingernails at bathtime while she plays with her toy frogs?’ Sasuke smirked.

Naruto kissed Sasuke on the cheek. ‘Anyway, come on Poggy, you can’t distract me with your fatherly concern for our girl, we’ve got a wedding to plan.’

 

 

Naruto looked at his seven folders of wedding ideas balancing in a tottering pile on the table and then he looked at the single piece of paper in front of his boyfriend.

‘Teme, you promised you’d do this properly today,’ the blonde growled.

‘Last night you asked me to collect together and bring all my wedding plans for this discussion. And this is it,’ Sasuke replied in his nonchalant Uchiha voice.

‘That’s it?’

Sasuke pointed to the writing on the paper as if Naruto was the dumb one. ‘Here’s my name, here’s your name. There’s our daughter. And Itachi and his family in brackets if they’re all available. That’s all we need, dobe. Everything and everyone else is surplus.’

Naruto leaned back in his chair and tried to glare Sasuke out. To his frustration Sasuke won and it was the blonde who looked away with a snarl.

‘If that’s all you really want why have you made it so difficult and kept putting it off?’ Naruto asked.

‘We _both_ agreed that as we’d been together so long without being married  it didn’t matter waiting a few more years so our daughter will be old enough to remember it.’

Naruto jabbed his finger at Sasuke’s paper. ‘She won’t remember that. No one will remember that. _I_ won’t remember that. We’re going to be the first same-sex marriage, it has to be something special and celebratory, something that’ll…’

‘Nar-u-to,’ Sasuke folded his arms. ‘You can stop there. We’ve spoken about this enough for you to be fully aware I am marrying you because I want to make a commitment to _you_ , it’s not for, or about, anyone or anything else.’

‘If it’s for me, then make it what it should be, the most important day of my life.’ Naruto leaned into Sasuke, tilting his head as if he was going to kiss his boyfriend but maintaining a couple of inches between their faces.

‘I hope the most important day of your life was when you finally came out of that coma, or when Little Tsunade was born.’ He entwined his fingers with Naruto’s. ‘Or when we kissed for the first time. Do you remember what it felt like when you first felt the heat of my mouth pressing against yours?’ Sasuke’s voice moved smoothly from indifferent to husky seduction.

Naruto swore under his breath. He could feel his cock already swelling, just from his boyfriend talking to him. There were times when he wished he wasn’t as so uncontrollably attracted to his lover. It obviously didn’t help that Sasuke had been teasing the hell out of him without giving him any relief.

Sasuke brought Naruto’s fingers to his mouth and sucked on them one by one. ‘Or maybe it’ll be today that you’ll remember above all others when I fuck you like you’ve never been fucked before.’ He lay his hand over Naruto’s groin.

Heat and pleasure surged through Naruto’s chakra points like a raging fire. He gazed at his partner wide eyed and mouth agape. ‘What…was…that?’ He panted.

‘A new trick Itachi taught me that I thought you might like.’

Naruto’s eyes widened even further. The only sound he could make was, ‘Waaaa?’

Sasuke’s cheeks flushed. ‘Not like that…obviously…it’s an old Uchiha fire type combat move…I considered on my own whether I could… use it in a different way. ..and experimented a bit…’

‘On Itachi?’

Sasuke pulled away. ‘On myself, dobe!’

Naruto’s own face was now totally red. ‘Can you do it again?’ He asked in a voice that was much quieter than his normal one. ‘I mean, after we’ve finished discussing the wedding, and before the others come back.’

Sasuke picked Naruto up and placed his bottom on the edge of the table. ‘We’ve finished discussing the wedding.’

‘We haven’t even started discussing the wedding!’ Naruto protested as his arms automatically went around his lover’s neck. _Be strong, be strong_ , he mentally tried to coach himself.

‘You can of course have whatever you want.’ Sasuke sighed and his voice lost a little of its huskiness and instead sounded tired. ‘My doubts are the same as when I couldn’t propose to you in front of everyone else. I don’t care what other people say, but it pains me to imagine your big day being ruined by hearing our friends gossiping about how you shouldn’t be marrying me and you’ll regret the whole thing. But I shouldn’t be thinking like that. I know better than anyone how strong and tough you are, if you need the whole of Konoha to witness our union to make it feel special, then that is what I want too.’ Sasuke gently caressed his lips over the marks on Naruto’s cheeks. ‘Whatever you want, dobe, I’ll give it to you.’

Naruto’s heart thumped with love. He pressed his forehead against Sasuke’s. ‘It isn’t _my_ big day, it’s _our_ big day. You’re right, we don’t need anyone else just our family. And it’ll be better this way, less organisation, which yaknow, I hate. And we can do it quickly so we could do it before Hinata and Kiba leave, as they’re kinda our family too now.’

Sasuke nipped Naruto’s lips. ‘You don’t need to pretend you’d be content with such a small thing. I just said we’d have the wedding you want.’

Naruto bit back harder. ‘And I just said we’d have the wedding _you_ want.’

Sasuke roughly gripped Naruto’s hips. ‘We’re not arguing about this.’

Naruto momentarily let Kurama’s claws come through his hand and scratched down Sasuke’s back. ‘Who’s arguing?’

Within five minutes all the wedding folders had been swept off the table and in their place the two men were naked writhing, biting, kicking, squeezing and heavily panting as they both insisted the other one was right.

 

***

‘Do you think that Naruto will get the wedding he wants?’ Hinata asked.

Kiba took a moment to respond as he was keeping a careful eye to check the ninja cat wasn’t bothering Akamaru. ‘I hope so. I can’t help wishing Naruto’d found someone who really deserved him, but he loves that bastard, so that bastard better give him what he wants or he’ll have me to answer to and he’ll not like that one bit.’

‘Poggy?’ Lil Tsu Tsu said in a sad voice.

Kiba exchanged a quick glance with Hinata. Despite his insistence to Sasuke that he was a very experienced father, maybe he was too used to being around Himawari. His daughter had very early on decided that almost everything her parents said was boring so she only listened if they addressed her directly. Naruto and Sasuke both said that their child understood everything, but Kiba had put that down to them being doting parents, Little Tsunade hardly spoke and even then didn’t have very many more words in her vocabulary than she’d had a year ago. Having spent so much time with her when she was a baby and Hinata had nursed her, Kiba viewed her almost as his surrogate kid, and loved her second to only his own Himawari, but he considered he saw her with more perspective than her real dads. Her unique conception and the difficult months where her very survival was in the balance had left her permanently behind all other children. And he suspected she may have had the misfortune of inheriting Naruto’s brainpower, or lack of it, rather than Sasuke’s cold intelligence. Not that that was a problem, there was plenty of room in the world for people of all level of skills and abilities, and what she lacked in smarts she certainly made up for in cuteness, anyone who looked at her could already tell she was going to be a beauty, combining the Uchiha bone structure with the Uzumaki warmth.

But Kiba grinned at her now as if she was as intellectually brilliant as she was pretty. ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, I shouldn’t threaten your pops in front of you. It’s just because I am so fond of your Daggy that I sometimes get angry at your Poggy as I’m always on your Daggy’s side. But I’d never really hurt Sasuke.’ He chuckled. ‘To be entirely honest, I probably _couldn’t_ even hurt him if I wanted to. Never tell him I said that, but your Poggy can be a bit intimidating and scary even to a top class ninja like me. Just do what your pal, Himawari, does, and ignore most of what I say, I talk rubbish a lot of the time, which you must be used to with Naruto. Do you understand what your uncle Kiba’s trying to say?’

Lil Tsu Tsu smiled brightly and clapped her hands together. Kiba instinctively put a hand out to ensure she kept her balance on the back of the pony when she wasn’t holding onto Himawari. He was confident of his own girl’s ability to do back flips and still remain on the pony, but Lil Tsu Tsu, despite her extraordinary parentage, had the physical development of an ordinary toddler, and sometimes not even that.

‘You okay?’ he asked the petite girl.

‘Keeeeby!’ the small flame haired child cried out cheerily.

Kiba smiled widely, it was the first time she’d got anywhere close to saying his name.

Hinata giggled. ‘I like that. Why have I never thought of calling you that before?’

Kiba chuckled and was about to reply, then he spied the ninneko creeping up on Akamaru. ‘Oi, Catty, don’t you even think about it!’ He yelled out.

The cat gave a low surprised meow, but slunk back to stroll next to Doggy.

‘Damn thing, trust Sasuke to pick up a fucking animal that thinks its purpose in life is to torment Akamaru. I should skin it alive and make a fur…’

Akamaru and Hinata made very similar noises and gestured with their heads towards the little girl who he was supporting on the back of the pony.

Kiba looked guiltily at Lil Tsu Tsu who gazed at him with big dark hurt eyes. He gave another explanation that mirrored the one he’d just made about never hurting Sasuke, but was a lot less convincing even to a tiny child.

Over the next hour, Kiba spent a great deal of his time making apologies to Naruto and Sasuke’s child, and the rest of his time swearing at the cat, and even the dog that kept bounding over bothering Akamaru more than the demon feline with his rough play.

Eventually Hinata volunteered, ‘Honey, why don’t I keep the pets busy, and you have a bit of a break just walking the girls around with Akamaru?’

‘You’re the kindest woman in the world, willing to face the Uchiha wrath by breaking his rules, just to give me a bit of peace.’ His words were light but he flashed her a smile full of heartfelt love.

‘Maybe, it’ll be the biggest favour we can do for Sasuke, show him that his daughter is safe travelling around this heavily protected village without needing a constant animal guard?’ Hinata gave a shy smile. ‘Although she’ll have you, and I don’t think any female ever needs more than that.’

Kiba sensed both the ninneko and ninken tensing for battle at just Hinata’s suggestion. Acting on his impulses he grabbed both the girls off the pony’s back, leapt onto Akamaru’s back and then they were running free at last from those pesky pets.

Kiba laughed and both girls giggled too, obviously excited by this unexpected adventure. There was a bit of guilt behind Kiba’s merriment, slightly at disobeying Sasuke’s rules. However, ridiculous it was to think that Lil Tsu Tsu needed a spiteful cat by her side at all times looking after her, if that’s what Sasuke felt, then Kiba should respect and follow it as a father’s wishes. He remembered how angry he got a few months ago when his father in law had babysat Himawari overnight  and decided to ignore Kiba telling him that the little girl needed her blanky in order to go to sleep. Hiashi had instead decided on his own that it was time to toughen his granddaughter up and get her used to the ninja life which meant camping out with barely the necessities for warmth, let alone a blanky for comfort.

Mostly though, Kiba was guilty for taking advantage of his wife’s sweet nature and leaving her to hold off three animals while he escaped and had fun. Hadn’t he just earlier been pepping his best friend up, telling Naruto he was too soft and shouldn’t let Sasuke walk over him? Kiba sighed, he was nowhere near Sasuke’s level of using his partner, but Hinata was a strong, beautiful woman who did her best to make everyone around her happy, Kiba needed to always ensure he treasured that quality, it was too easy in a longterm relationship to take each other for granteed. Rushing off because he was getting fed up with shouting at some annoying animals, definitely didn’t come under the heading of ‘treasuring’ someone.

A sensation passed through his body. Kiba understood immediately. Akamaru was telling him he had to be braver, to not go for the easy explanation for why he had left Hinata alone and disobeyed Sasuke’s command. It was time to face the truth.

 Many nin animals were chatty creatures, but him and Akamaru had never needed actual words, they were connected on a deeper level than that. Naruto understood their bond slightly because of being a jinchuriki, but even though Kurama was inside him, most of their communication was still through talking. Kiba and Akamaru were beyond that, it felt like they shared a consciousness, that they were twins spiritually joined together even when their bodies were separate. It wasn’t that they understood each other, it was that they were each other.

And there was something that they needed to face together. Both of them were trying to ignore it, but it was always there, and Kiba knew it was the reason Lil Tsu Tsu’s pets had riled him so much, the true reason why he had run when Hinata gave him an opportunity. Akamaru was aging faster than Kiba. If Kiba was granted a good human life span, he wasn’t even close to middle aged. Whereas Akamaru was old for a dog. Buf of course, a ninken wasn’t like a normal dog, and there were reports of them living much longer than humans, Kiba kept telling himself this. But the truth was that all the battles they’d been through had caught up with Akamaru in a way they hadn’t affected Kiba.  

The trip from Konoha to Kirigakure had fatigued Akamaru in a way it wouldn’t have even last year. When it got cold, or rainy, Akamaru’s bones ached and each week it seemed to be taking him slightly longer to lose the stiffness he woke up with.

He sent a sensation back to Akamaru and only afterwards thought about in human words.

He was ready to accept Akamaru’s decline, he would tell Hinata today. When they got back to Konoha he would tell his family and Kakashi. He knew he was an important jonin, but he had done a lot for his country. He wouldn’t be forced into bonding with another dog, him and Akamaru would retire together, take on something sedate and boring. He might not be old, but Kiba wasn’t entirely the young kid desperate for adventure and to prove himself anymore. He got far more happiness spending a quiet day doing nothing in particular with Hinata and Himawari, than chasing down and capturing a rogue nin. He wanted to be a man Hinata of the great Hyuga clan would be proud to be married to. But he smiled with the knowledge, that his wife was more content seeing him play with Himawari than being complimented for how brave her husband was.

 A feeling of relief and joy went through him to Akamaru and was reflected back at him. He hadn’t realised how pressured he’d been feeling, until making this definite decision and knowing the woman he loved wouldn’t only support him, but would be glad that he'd be at home raising Himwari and never leaving for unknown secret, but always risky, missions again.

Kiba looked down at the two girls he was holding and beamed with pure delight. They were both still giggling and were tightly clinging onto each other as Akamaru ran much faster than the pony’s plodding pace. He gave a chuckle thinking far more essential than his freshly made decision to retire from dangerous missions, he needed to tell Hinata what Naruto had been chatting to him about first thing this morning. It would make her smile her sweet smile and laugh her sweet laugh, to hear that their idiot friend was already wondering if Lil Tsu Tsu and Himawari would fall in love and be a couple when they were adults.

Kiba laughed himself. But he spoke in an almost serious voice to the girls, ‘Right, this is just a short bit of fun, before we get down to some proper work. We’re going to go back to Hinata and the animals in a minute and you two are going to experience some real Inuzaka training. Lil Tsu Tsu since your dads have seen fit to give you not one, but two, ninja pets, I am going to teach you how to get them in order. Catty is too ninja, and Doggy doesn’t even seem to realise he’s a ninja, so it’s your job to lead the way and help them be the greatest they can be.’

‘Keeeeby!’ Lil Tsu Tsu giggled.

Himawari smiled at her friend and up at her dad. ‘Daddy, if you want to train me properly, I need a puppy. A really cute puppy.’

Kiba winked at her. ‘My life is dedicated to making you happy, princess. We’ll find someone perfect for you to grow up with.’

One child was younger than her years, and one older, it was going to be a challenge to train them together, a challenge that made his heart beat faster than any mission had in a long while. He looked forward to taking Lil Tsu Tsu back to Sasuke with both her pets well under her control.

‘You’re the best daddy ever,’ Himawari said.

 ‘You bet I am.’ Kiba grinned.

‘Daggy! Poggy!’ Lil Tsu Tsu protested.

‘They’re pretty cool too, but it’s not a competition.’ Kiba leaned close to Himawari and whispered theatrically. ‘But if  it was a competition I would totally win.’

‘Daggy! Poggy!’ Lil Tsu Tsu said again but she was giggling, and Kiba and Himawari laughed too.

Kiba slightly tightened his knees into Akamaru’s side and readjusted his hold on the children, as Akamaru went into what was now his top speed. It was one of those moments of happiness that he knew was perfect while he was actually experiencing it. There were times he could look back on in his memories and think how wonderful they were, but when he’d been living through them, like just hanging out with HInata and Shino when they were kids, he hadn’t realised how special those experiences were.

But now holding two beautiful little girls, racing over the rooftops of Kirigakure he knew as he was living it, that this was a golden moment he would hold in his memories for the rest of his life.

He knew he had to get back to Hinata soon, but as they flew through the air he appreciated every moment, knowing that in another year or two Akamaru may not be capable of these speeds and the girls may have grown too heavy for his tired back to carry at the same time. Now he’d decided he would slow his life to meet his dog’s though, the future didn’t seem something to fear. They’d grow old, but they’d grow old together and that was all that mattered. The knowledge of their upcoming future meant that these times when their bodies soared through the air making the little children squeal with delight, were even more precious.

Kiba felt the sensation coming from Akamaru that could be interpreted into human words as ‘ _I never want this to end_.’ Kiba sent the same feeling back with the addition ‘ _But I can’t wait to help Himawari become an even better ninja than me_.’

Then it did end.

It was all over.

They reached the edge of the village, a piece of greenery, a training ground? Neither Akamaru or Kiba sensed the attack. They were running together as they had so many times before. And then they weren’t. They lay motionless on the ground. Kiba’s eyes were open. They were dry and sore, but he couldn’t blink to try and moisten them. He couldn’t see properly. He couldn’t see the girls. He could see Akamaru. The two parts of Akamaru. The dog’s head had been hewn cleanly off his body.

It was then that Kiba knew he was dead. If there was any spark of life left in him he would be able to leap to his feet and chase after whatever had kidnapped Himawari and Lil Tsu Tsu, he would be weeping tears of rage over the murder of his oldest companion. But he remained completely still. His body would never cry, or smile again.

He wasn’t sure what these last thoughts were, or where they came from, but he knew his life in this world had finished. He thought of Hinata. It seemed impossible that he would be leaving her behind and wouldn't wake up tomorrow with the warmth of her body against his, or see her sweet smile and hear her gentle voice. It _had_ to be impossible.

But then everything disappeared. He was young again and Akamaru was a small pup peeking out from under his hood.

Kiba gave a rueful laugh, ‘Typical, Akamaru, we just decide to retire and take things slow as we get older, and we’re both children again.’

‘This is how it works.’ Shino appeared beside him, or maybe he had always been standing there. ‘Just when I thought Naruto was warming to me and I’d found a romantic companion, I got killed in an unforeseen war.’

Kiba laughed louder. ‘Does being dead destroy your memory? Have you forgotten that you got killed protecting genin that Naruto had left behind because he was busy rushing off learning how to have _Sasuke’s_ baby?’

Shino gave a small nod. ‘I know, but things could have turned out differently. I could have been a good father.’

Kiba stopped laughing. ‘You would’ve been, Shino. I’m sorry things turned out how they did. I’ve missed you.’

Shino gave a small smile of acknowledgement then started walking forward. ‘It’s time to go, Kiba.’

He wondered if Shino and Akamaru were really with him, or if they were the last fragments of his dying mind? He didn’t know. But then he’d never been much of a thinker, and now didn’t really seem to be the time to start.

He fell into step beside his friend and they chatted comfortably to one another as if they truly were teenagers again and just setting out on another standard mission together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am so grateful to you for reading and if you have a moment to leave feedback or kudos if you like this chapter, I am extra super grateful as it'll help me decide how far to continue this story.  
> Big Naruto bear hugs for all you lovely people x


	3. Chapter 3

Fully dressed and sitting at the table, Sasuke smirked at Naruto growling to himself as the blonde tried to fit his massive erection comfortably back into his boxers. When Sasuke had once again stopped their sexual play before giving Naruto any relief, Naruto had thrown a full on tantrum, loud and angry enough that any spoilt toddler would be proud of such a prolonged outburst.

Now, the shouting rage had passed but the blonde continued to grumble as he got dressed. He gave up on positioning his cock and just pulled his orange jumpsuit over the top, ignoring the tenting at his groin. ‘I should fucking go and wank myself off that’d serve you right. Then when you’re all begging for my cock and I’m all like, _No thanks, teme, I’m perfectly satisfied and have absolutely no desire for you to straddle me, or fuck me, or anything._ That would soooo serve you right.’

Sasuke smiled serenely at his boyfriend. Sharp little fangs were visible when Naruto snarled back at him. They both knew how empty Naruto’s threat was.

One: Naruto never engaged in solo masturbation, even when they’d been separated for months, Naruto had found no pleasure in self-relief. Maybe because they’d been together since they were so young and done all their explorations together, Naruto had never bothered or needed to find his own fun. Although the man still looked like he knew exactly what he was doing, and incredibly hot, when Sasuke asked him to touch himself while Sasuke watched.

Two: No one had an appetite for sex as big as Naruto’s. There had been occasions when even Sasuke had tapped out all his energy while his boyfriend was still hungry for more. There was no way in any world that Naruto would say ‘no’ to sex even if he had broken the habit of a lifetime and wanked himself off.

‘If you agree to have the wedding I want, then I’ll bend you over the table and fuck you right now.’  Sasuke kept the same smile on his face.

Naruto stalked forward. Sasuke’s face remained blank. His body surged with lust. When Naruto’s animalistic side was on display, Sasuke was always fully aware of why Naruto was the only man he’d ever let inside him. Even in his months of madness when he convinced himself it was over with Naruto, and he was having sex with so many different people, he’d never once thought of letting any of them fuck him. Only Naruto possessed the raw power that could make Sasuke succumb.

‘Do you mean the wedding _you_ want? Or the wedding you’re pretending to want which is the wedding you think I want, which isn’t the wedding I want anymore. I want you, me, Lil Tsunade, Itachi, Mei, our nieces and nephews, Kiba, Hinata and Himawari. And that’s all.’ Naruto moved his hands out in wide gestures as he spoke. Sasuke tried not to look too obvious as he gazed at the pointed little claws as the bestial side of the blonde emerged in his anger.

Sasuke opened one of Naruto’s wedding folders. He turned the pages carefully pretending to look absorbed so as not to reveal how easily Naruto could flip the situation and have Sasuke on his knees begging to suck Naruto off.

And then he wasn’t pretending anymore. It was pictures and pictures of flowers, all carefully cut out, and annotated with beautiful handwriting. He’d occasionally seen Naruto working on his wedding ideas, a few times bent over, so deep in concentration that his tongue was poking out and he didn’t even notice Sasuke’s arrival. But Sasuke had never thought too much about it, as the wedding was a topic he avoided in his mind. However, now looking at how much effort his messy boyfriend had put into just thinking about _flowers_ , Sasuke’s chest hurt.

‘I didn’t know you were capable of being so neat, dobe,’ Sasuke said. ‘You truly are the most unpredictable man, after all these years you still surprise me.’

Naruto’s fierceness disappeared. He blushed and rubbed the back of his head. ‘That was me, yaknow, amusing myself, keeping busy or whatever when you were out late and Lil Tsu Tsu was sleeping. It doesn’t mean anything. All I want is to be married to you as soon a possible. I don’t care about any of the other stuff.’ He closed the folder and pulled it away from Sasuke.

Sasuke picked up another one. This one was full of outfits. Again lots of cut out pictures, however Naruto had actually tried designing his own. Whereas his writing had been unbelievably immaculate, no amount of effort could improve his dobe’s drawing skills. But somehow the rough lines, odd proportions and strange shapes, touched Sasuke even more than the perfect writing had. And just the minutiae of Naruto pondering over footwear and embroidery on hems, made the breath catch in Sasuke’s throat. Naruto didn’t care about clothes, he liked bright and comfortable, and once he’d found something that met those broad criteria he’d wear it forever, asking Sasuke to patch up tears rather than buy new things. But here he was making long notes about which designs might best match Sasuke’s complexion.

‘Naruto…’ Sasuke wasn’t sure what he wanted to say, what he was going to say.

Naruto’s eyes turned to fire, his own sharingan activated so sharply that tears of blood stained his cheeks. Both of them were out of the house, the door kicked down rather than opened. Naruto was fractionally faster than him. Sasuke gripped his boyfriend’s hand, to get pulled along by his extra speed.

Then they were there.

The thing they had felt. The painful disruption in energy. And something deep in Sasuke wished they weren’t. He wished they were still at home, wrestling naked on the floor and arguing about weddings.

Hinata was knelt on the floor her husband’s head in her lap, her face white with shock, her hands trembling as she stroked Kiba’s hair. ‘Wake up, sweetheart, please wake up. It’s time to wake up now. Please, sweetie, please, for me.’

Naruto howled. His head all the way back, his mouth fully open. The wretched sound turned Sasuke’s guts to liquid.

Sasuke needed to get Hinata to talk to them, she hadn’t even looked at them yet, despite the noise Naruto was making. He could see scratches on her skin, a nip possibly, but nothing to suggest she’d fought something powerful enough to cleanly take out Akamaru and Kiba. Because that was what had happened. Sasuke forced himself to quickly accept their deaths and try to think rationally and assess the situation. There was no visible signs of battle, just the two dead bodies and the negligible marks on Hinata.

But Sasuke couldn’t bring himself to let go of Naruto’s hand. He had to restrain himself from just hugging his boyfriend tightly against his chest and taking him home, leaving someone else to sort out this mess. But Hinata and Kiba were their friends. And there was nothing to indicate that this wasn’t still an incredibly dangerous situation.

‘Hinata!’ Sasuke shouted over Naruto’s sounds of anguish. ‘Where’ve you left the children? Where are Himawari and Little Tsunade? Are the ninja pets protecting them? I just need to know they’re safe and then we can hunt down whoever did this to Kiba.’

He wasn’t sure if Hinata heard him. She paused for a moment but then continued pleading with Kiba.

‘Please, sweetie, I’m here now, it’s okay, please wake up. My Kiba, my husband, please. We need to find the girls. They’ll be scared on their own without us. And Sasuke will be so cross with me that I let Lil Tsu Tsu go off without Catty, Doggy and Pony. Please, come back to me, Kiba please. I need you.’

Naruto’s howl turned into a roar.

‘Usuratonkachi,’ Sasuke pronounced the term of affection as slowly and calmly as he could. ‘We need to think coolly in order that we can work out and act in the best way possible to find Little Tsunade and Himawari.’

The hand he was holding turned into a claw burning with such intense heat that it was painful for even Sasuke to keep touching it. But he didn’t let go. The smell of his smouldering flesh filled the air.

‘Naruto, stay with me. We’ll do this together.’

Sasuke’s arm was wrenched out of its socket. He gripped his fingers as tightly as he could around Naruto’s. He wasn’t strong enough. Naruto pulled free from him. But it wasn’t Naruto anymore. It wasn’t Kurama either. Sasuke looked at the creature running off with a speed that was almost beyond Sasuke’s perception and didn’t recognise it as anything he’d seen before. He raced to follow it. And then stopped.

He suddenly and vividly remembered a night so long ago. Naruto waking from a bad dream and desperately making Sasuke promise that if there was ever a choice between him and their daughter, Sasuke would protect their daughter.

Out of control, Naruto was rushing towards a situation he had no knowledge of, against an enemy that could take a seasoned fighter like Kiba down without even a scuffle. And Sasuke was going to let him.

The best way to get Little Tsunade back safely was to gather all the information available, assemble an expert force, and work intelligently and diligently as a team. If Sasuke chased after Naruto they could both end up in the wrong place, out of action and useless in helping their daughter.

Yes, it was the right decision. He had broken promises to Naruto before. Never again. His logic didn’t stop his soul and heart screaming out in agony. But he swallowed his tears, his panic and his torment and turned back to Hinata with a perfect Uchiha face ready to begin his investigation while the man he loved more than life hurtled towards unknown danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for continuing to read this story, I really really hope you like the direction it is going in. This is a shorter chapter compared to many that I write, I wanted to remain focused on this one moment. I'll probably compensate by writing a novel for the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

‘I’ve sent the ninja pets after Little Tsunade. They weren’t there when the attack happened, Hinata kept them separate. I don’t know why, I couldn’t get much information out of her. She’s still in shock. The medics have taken her to the hospital. She wouldn’t let go of Kiba.’ Sasuke told his brother. It was at least the fifth time he’d given Itachi this information, but his voice rambled on anyway. ‘Naruto’s out on his own. He went feral. I let him go off on his own. I should have tried harder to stop him. Last time I lost him… last time I didn’t know where he was, the idiot got himself pregnant.’ He gave a laugh, which sounded like exactly what it was: manic.

Itachi touched him in the centre of his forehead and left his fingers there. ‘Naruto is more powerful than Kiba. And he won’t be caught by surprise. Whoever stupidly believes they can cross village boundaries and steal my niece, will be caught, tortured and executed. Your daughter will be returned to you unharmed and just thinking she’s had a strange adventure, Naruto will come back to you puffed up and boasting about how many enemies he took down on his own. This isn’t speculation, this is fact.’

Sasuke nodded, eager to believe his beloved brother. ‘Tell me what to do, niisan.’

There weren’t many people he took instructions from, only one he actively sought guidance from, but Itachi’s reply made fire rage through his body.

‘You’ll wait here, when your ninja pets return you’ll contact me immediately with what they’ve found.’ Itachi’s body disappeared into black birds and he was gone before Sasuke could argue. Or tell him for a sixth time that he hadn’t managed to stop Naruto leaving.

The ninjas who had been charged with investigating the area of the attack had all quickly finished their job and long left. Alone, Sasuke allowed himself to sink down onto his knees beside the place where Akamaru’s blood stained the grass. He’d seen a lot. And now the image of the clean-up team first picking up first the dog’s big body, then his decapitated head, and placing them on separate stretchers would be added to all the other deep scars.

He wished he could be angry with Hinata, or preferably Kiba, for ignoring his instructions. Maybe it would come later. He knew how to deal with anger. But all he had now was numbness. The only other time he’d felt like this is when Naruto and him had been parted and the blonde had left Konoha without telling him. He gazed at the place where Naruto had vanished into the trees. It would be easy to follow his trail. Naruto wasn’t exactly skilled at subterfuge when he was trying, let alone when he was a wild beast.

Sasuke took a deep breath and stood up. He turned away from the direction Naruto had gone and began to investigate the area for anything the other ninjas had missed. When he next saw his boyfriend, he would give him the longest lecture on losing control and running off recklessly. It’d obviously be Sasuke and Itachi through logic and careful tracking that would retrieve Little Tsunade and Himawari safely and obliterate those that had taken them. Naruto would be sheepish rubbing the back of his head, unwilling to fully admit how correct Sasuke was but unable to deny how stupid he’d been leaving Sasuke behind. Sasuke would have to bend Naruto over the bed and spank his naked ass to prove his point.

None of the pleasure that normally sparked through his being at any vaguely sexual thought involving his fiancé appeared. Sasuke remained numb.

‘Be safe, Sunflower, be safe,’ he murmured. ‘ _Please’_

***

Himawari had wet herself. Snot and tears ran down her face. Within the confines of the sack they’d been thrown in, she held Lil Tsu Tsu even tighter against her chest.

‘Daddy…Daddy…Akamaru…Daddy…they’re going to be ok. Don’t worry, Tsu Tsu, Daddy and Mummy’ll be here soon. They’ll take us back home. Daddy…Daddy…And your Daggy and Poggy…and Catty and Doggy…they’re going to punish the bad men.’

Himawari spoke in a small child’s voice, but still one of the bad men shouted out, ‘Shut the fuck up, brats!’

Despite the warning Little Tsunade whispered, ‘Keeby,’ in her friend’s ear.

It was all she could manage to say. Most of the time she was nothing but a toddler, but there were flashes when she wasn’t. Now was one of those moments, but could she stretch it out longer than she ever had before to make it mean something?

Normally everything inside her was a turmoil and her body felt too big and too complicated to control. Then in all the randomness sometimes everything inside her fitted perfectly into place and her body was too small to contain all that she was.

She understood how she was made better than her parents did. She was born from Naruto and Sasuke’s bright and burning love, the strongest force in the world, strong enough to defy nature and enable a man to conceive and carry a child; her. But she’d been born through Naruto’s darkest pain and his desperation to try anything to keep Sasuske bound to him. A twisting, spiked emotion tearing constantly through her gut.

She merged the powers of her two parents, powers that both of them as adults still had to fight to control. Their skills entwined through her whole being, sparking off and threatening to incinerate her world.

She was less than them combined. But she was beyond their limits. The original Tsunade, the lady she was named after, had enthused her chakra into the tiny seed in Naruto’s body. The only female involved in her creation, but the Senju princess only added to the baby’s fierce determination, gave a touch of healing and steely love, plus supplemented Naruto’s recklessness with a desire to gamble against all odds.

Then there was the last force that made her. Kurama. She had vivid memories, an understanding of the world that was beyond any human, even her unique shinobi parents. Through her eyes she could see things no other mortal could. She wasn’t even certain if she was _mortal_. If she could only hold onto her comprehension she could talk to the fox spirit and try and gain all the knowledge she needed.

Except she couldn’t talk. Everything she felt was too enormous and magnificent to put into words.

And right now she was far from her doting parents. She had no hope of explaining anything to anyone while she was trapped in a sack.

She could see all the fibres of the material and knew how to tear them apart without blinking. And the men who had taken them, they thought they were invincible, but she could hear the beat of their hearts, all five of them in the case of one of the men, however the number didn’t matter to her. She could squeeze the life out of anything.

A shiver of fear went through her at the bloodthirsty anger that pumped through her. That wasn’t her. That was Kurama. But then Kurama was part of her so…all that rage, that ability to pitilessly kill, was her. And she could use it to protect her friend Himawari and get home to her parents.

Or all her power would disappear like it always did and she’d be a gurgling helpless toddler that they would bind even tighter for daring to try and escape.

Lil Tsu Tsu swallowed back the tears that were beginning to form. She could already feel her awareness slipping away again. She focused all her energy on channelling the combat experience she’d inherited through her miraculous birth. She reached out with her mind and slid over the two foes, and searched further. Her parents were out there. Both of them terrified bundles of furious grief. They would not hear her properly, she wasn’t strong enough. She travelled down her bonds of love and found who she needed. Her uncle Itachi.

She hoped it was enough.

Exhausted she felt everything draining out of her.

‘Keeby,’ Lil Tsu Tsu murmured. Her mind went blank.

 

***

Naruto wandered blinking towards the wooden shack. For blissful moments he couldn’t remember why he was here. It was as if he’d stopped existing, he’d flashed out of his own life. Had Sasuke and him been sparring with a new technique that had gone wrong?

The last thing he could recall was the annoying, horrible, mean man that he’d for some reason given all his love to, sexually teasing him almost to climax before smirking and walking away leaving Naruto gasping.

Had Sasuke tried some new sexual genjutsu on him that had sent him to oblivion? Maybe in revenge…no, _reward…_ for all the times that Naruto had fucked Sasuke so long and hard that his boyfriend forgot his own name.

Then like a thump to the gut it came back to him. His body wanted to double over and vomit up everything he had ever eaten. He resisted, that was not his ninja way. His ninja way was to race to the hut, rip the door off and rush in with a warcry that made the timber frame shake.

He wished Sasuke was here to burn the whole thing down to the ground. Why wasn’t Sasuke here? Sasuke was always by his side when they went into battle together. And this wasn’t any battle. This was their daughter.

Pain whipped through him. Doubts that should have died years ago. Sasuke had never wanted to have a baby with Naruto, had viewed the pregnancy as a deformity, had been having sex with other people while Naruto was in agony trying to keep the child alive inside him.

Naruto yelled out in red anger, mad at himself, not his lover. He knew how much Sasuke loved him and Lil Tsu Tsu. The Uchiha would appear soon. Naruto’s very essence had been taken over by a fury and fear ripped out of both him and Kurama. He had had no conscious control. It’d been impossible for Sasuke to keep up with him, and even though Naruto couldn’t sense him yet, he knew a shinobi as skilled as Sasuke would not be far behind. Then together they would be unstoppable. Nothing would save whoever had hurt Kiba and Akamaru and taken their children.

He looked around again, when would Sasuke arrive? Naruto needed his other half’s brain. He didn’t know why he’d ended up here. He didn’t know what he was looking for. He was being propelled by emotions and nothing else.

But he couldn’t wait for his fiancé’s calmer mind. Who knew what would happen to Lil Tsu Tsu if he paused even for a second. Naruto kicked the nearest door open and stormed through it.

His mind wasn’t working well enough for him to have any expectation but still he stopped at the surprising sight that greeted him.

Over the walls were paintings of him. Close ups of his face with his green meditative eyes, full pictures of him glowing with energy and rushing to fight, and lots of him pregnant. He recognised himself because of his distinctive features, like the marks on the cheeks, but they didn’t _feel_ like him. There was one with him naked, his belly was curved with growing life as it was in all the paintings that showed his body, but whoever painted it had obviously never seen him without clothes. 

‘I’d like for my work to be more accurate,’ a voice behind him said.

Naruto swung around, hitting automatically out and sending the speaker flying across the room. The man was obviously trained as he landed awkwardly but didn’t go spinning through the wall as most people would have from the force of the blow.

Naruto’s heart thumped. He had such little control of his senses that someone had crept up on him when he was distracted looking at fucking perverted pictures.

‘Kurama, I need you to be better than me,’ the blonde hissed.

He could feel the fox boiling beneath his skin, desperate to escape and slaughter every human that crossed his path until they got their little girl back. And Naruto was close to letting him.

 ‘I am glad to finally have the opportunity to be reacquainted with you, Uzumaki Naruto.’ The man got to his feet and stood gazing at Naruto with a weird unperturbed smile.

Naruto’s eyes widened. ‘Sai?’ He almost smiled at the familiar face, but then it turned into a growl. ‘What are you doing here? Where’s my little girl?’

Sai made his hands into little squares and tilted his head at different angles as he gazed at Naruto. ‘I don’t have your daughter, but if you behave in a polite manner and don’t hit me again, I have information that may help you recover her.’

Normally Naruto had to go into his mind space to talk to Kurama, but the nine tail’s voice was so close to his own thoughts that it reverberated through his whole being.

‘Kill him, kit. Rip the meat off his bones and then ground his bones to dust.’

Sai walked over to him and with that disconcerting smile on his face he passed Naruto a book. ‘If you do not know how to behave politely this book will be very useful. It was very difficult for me knowing what to do and say after you killed Danzo. He was my guide. I’d been with him my whole life. The information in here helped me out immensely Take your time to read and we can continue talking when you’re ready. I’m happy to wait.’

Naruto tore the book in two, he barely constrained himself from stuffing it down Sai’s throat, but repeated to himself that he didn’t know what was going on, Sai could still prove to be his ally. Instead he tore the pages up into smaller pieces and dropped them on the floor.

His rage was undisguised in the growl of his voice. ‘I’m _not_ happy to wait. Tell me what you know.’

Sa said nothing, he just looked down sadly at the ruined book.

‘Is this revenge? Do you want to hurt me because I killed Danzo? That’s fine, do whatever you want to me, just don’t harm an innocent child.’ Naruto thought his voice sounded incredibly reasonable. ‘People who hurt children deserve nothing but pain.’

Sai took a step back and a shadow of fear passed over his features. But it was quickly gone and the smile returned.

‘You’re wrong. I wasn’t sad that Danzo was killed. You freed me. You treated me like a human that was worth something more than just being a weapon. You prevented Sasuke from killing me, but more than that, you were interested in me, all those long conversations we had on the trip to Kumogakure, no one had ever spoken to me like that before. In such a short time we developed a special bond.’

Kurama’s voice, or was it his own desire, throbbed through Naruto’s head. He bit his lip, tried to ignore it, tried to think clearly. His daughter’s safety was on the line.

If Sasuke was here, he’d reply coldly to Sai, tell him that they hadn’t been on a _trip_ together, Sai had been a prisoner. And probably say that Naruto had a big mouth, he chatted to everyone, it meant nothing, Sai wasn’t any more special than any random person in the street Naruto started a conversation with. That was if Sasuke said anything at all. It was far more likely that he’d be beating Sai until the man revealed everything he knew.

Naruto wondered why he wasn’t doing the same? Because he wasn’t a torturer, he’d never been capable of cruelty in his life, even when the ends so justified the means. Or because he was barely in control of his body, if he let the violence escape, he would kill Sai with a single punch and have no power to stop Kurama rampaging.

He swallowed hard. He _was_ a talker. It was that ability that had apparently interested Sai…and made him put lots of creepy paintings of him over the wall. He tried to remember their conversations from years ago. The only vivid memories from that journey were the exhaustion of maintaining the pregnancy,  Sasuke holding and carrying him, and despite the incredibly pain Naruto feeling calm and optimistic secure in the arms of his boyfriend. Another journey flashed into his mind though.

‘Sai, why would you take my daughter when you’re my friend? Sasuke broke you out of prison and you helped him win me back. On your ink bird things you chased after me and Gaara, then you took us home to Konoha and…I don’t remember it so well, what with being passed out, yaknow, but Sasuke told me you went into battle for us when we were attacked and…’

‘And I waited for you to come and find me,’ Sai interrupted. ‘I was patient while you were in a coma, I didn’t expect Sasuke to feel any need to show his gratitude. But I thought you were different. When you recovered I thought _you’d_ seek me out. It is important to say thank you, Naruto, my book was clear on that. But instead you left Konoha, came and lived here and it was as if you never thought of me again.’

Naruto fought a real and bloody urge to break Sai’s limbs off. Had Kiba and Akamaru died, because Naruto hadn’t said _thank you_? Even in his inconsolable grief and rage though, part of Naruto always naturally sympathised with lonely people.

‘Was your book written for normal people or shinobi?’ he asked. ‘Because I think there might be a big difference. In the ninja world at the moments when you most want to express your thanks, or your regret, or your love, there’s no time. You have to keep fighting and never lose focus. This breeds us to be ruder than other people as we get used to not saying things. But it’s more than that, we stop saying things because with the people that count we don’t need to. We build bonds, like you said, special bonds that go beyond words, and way beyond what you can read in a book. When I got out of the coma, I was still ill for a long time, and I had a little baby to look after and a big baby called Sasuke to try and sort things out with. And more than that I believe you’d understand as we were connected how grateful I was, and always will be.’

Naruto’s head dropped. When he’d had success talking to people like Orochimaru and Nagato he’d always spoken from his heart. This was much more difficult, his dominating emotions were entwined with Kurama’s and they were all murderous.

‘We are connected,’ Sai said. ‘But friendships take work and effort. You cannot assume another person understands how you feel. The book talked a lot about this. You shouldn’t have torn it up, Naruto, I think you would have benefited from reading it.’

‘If we’d come and found you, we would have had to fight and recapture you. We’re Konoha ninja and you’re rogue,’ Naruto struggled to keep his voice calm.

‘I would have been content in prison with you visiting me,’ Sai said.

‘I don’t know if I could have stopped you being executed, I would have tried but…’

‘It would have been fine. I’d have died knowing I had a true friend.’ Sai reached out and took Naruto’s hand.

Naruto’s flesh went cold, he instinctively pulled away.

‘Friends are affectionate with each other. The book said that physical contact enhances…’

Naruto roared. ‘Did your book never make it extremely utterly essentially completely fucking clear that friends do not kidnap children!’

Sai’s smile vanished, his eyes were winter cold. ‘I know you’re emotional but do not speak to me like that or we’ll stop being friends. I’ve already had to forgive you for hitting me and I don’t know yet if I am a very forgiving person.’ The smile reappeared. ‘So you understand clearly though, I’ll not make assumptions that you can read my mind and will explain everything to you.’

‘Thank you, thank you.’ Naruto’s voice was a twisted mixture between bitter rage and genuine relief.

‘Your daughter is not here. My role in the plan was to act as decoy. An item of your daughter’s clothing was stolen, and a sample of her blood was taken from her last test at the hospital. It was predicted that you’d go into an animal rage on discovering she was missing and would be easy to distract and led away by a simple scent trail. It was believed that Sasuke would follow you, but personally I am glad that it’s is just you.’

‘ _When_ Sasuke arrives you are dead,’ Naruto couldn’t stop himself growling.

Sai shrugged. ‘Then Little Tsunade is fortunate that he is slow. If my ink animals do not arrive at set times, then it’ll be known that you’ve murdered me and moved on. If that is the case the kidnappers will change their plan to the easier one, which as you may be able to guess involves killing the child.’

Naruto thumped a hole through the wall, destroying the naked picture of him in the process.

‘You need to apologise for damaging my property.’ Sai smiled.

‘Kill him, kit. Rip the meat off his bones and then ground his bones to dust.’

Kurama’s voice was so loud that it seemed to be filling the whole room. Naruto was surprised that Sai couldn’t hear it, but then even if he could he’d still probably have that sickening smile on his face.

‘I’m…sorry.’ Naruto wasn’t Sasuke. He had no problem apologising when he’d done something wrong, but right now it felt like that one word would choke him.

‘Apology accepted. As I said I wanted to paint more accurate work that truly reflects you. You can show me how sorry you are by helping me make an even better replacement. Please take your clothes off while I prepare.’

Naruto gazed without comprehension as Sai busied around the room, getting easel, canvas and paint palette while he chatted about light properties or some other nonsense that Naruto couldn’t follow.

When Sai finally had everything he wanted ready he stared at Naruto’s still fully clothed form.

‘This will be a nude painting, Naruto,’ he said. ‘I require you to get undressed please.’

Naruto continued to gaze at him.

Sai started to mix a colour on his palette. ‘It seems after all I didn’t explain things clearly enough, friend. If I have to waste time waiting for you to do what I politely ask you to, it may cause all sorts of delays and confusions with when I send my ink animals out and what messages they carry to the people who have your daughter.’

The room was silent apart from Sai’s brush swishing through the paint. Then another sound was added.

Naruto pulled down the long zipper of his jumpsuit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a very difficult chapter to write. I hope it wasn't too difficult to read. x


	5. Chapter 5

Sasuke gazed across the table, he had all of Naruto’s wedding folders open and spread before him. He saw everything and nothing. All the details were engraved on his mind from the hours he’d spent staring at them, but his mind blurred with unanswerable questions. After Naruto had forgiven him his many infidelities, why hadn’t he married his boyfriend at the soonest possible moment? Why hadn’t he bled himself to the bone giving the blonde miracle every single thing he could to make him happy? Even after all they had gone through, had Sasuke on some level continued to take Naruto’s kindness for granted?

Sasuke tilted his head back. ‘Where are you, dobe?’

The dog at his side made a whimpering noise. Sasuke stroked his head and smiled ruefully down at him. ‘You have no idea, do you? Naruto obviously wouldn’t give our daughter a ninja hound that is any good at tracking.’ He smirked. ‘Don’t be too hurt. I am incredibly good at tracking and Itachi didn’t take me on his mission either, Doggy.’

If anyone else other than Itachi had ordered him to remain at home while every single ninja of any talent was out searching for his daughter, Sasuke would at best have ignored them, at worst (and more likely) ensured that they’d never be physically capable of speaking such stupidity again. But it had been Itachi.

His brother hadn’t shared any extra information in their most recent conversation, he hadn’t needed to, just a small nod had been enough to communicate that he knew where Little Tsunade and Himawari were, who had her, and he had the manpower to punish them and rescue the children.

Sasuke trusted his brother, but his chest ached at Itachi’s decision to leave him behind. Sasuke had trained hard over the years, when his control had been tested to the limit, he’d been able to make the logical decision not to follow Naruto and instead help in the investigation to find their daughter, but he knew that if he was confronted with the people who put his only child in danger he could explode and make her safe extraction even more difficult.

It made sense but every few minutes he had to repeat the same reasoning.

Then it stopped making sense.

Sasuke had not gone after Naruto because of his promise to always put their daughter first. Itachi had made it clear he didn’t want Sasuke involved with the recovery of Little Tsunade. But Naruto hadn’t been mentioned. By some deep instinct, Sasuke knew that his boyfriend had gone the wrong way, that when Itachi rescued Little Tsunade, Naruto would still be lost.

The Uchiha leaped out of his chair and with a flash the house was empty.

 

***

Sasuke stood motionless staring at the hut. It had been easy to find his way here, whatever fury had been in charge of Naruto when he ran off it had made no attempts to cover its tracks. Sasuke realised how completely focused on the children Itachi was, not to have come here himself and bought his honorary little brother home. But why hadn’t Naruto returned himself?

Sasuke had no official sensory powers, but he knew his family, he knew Naruto was here and Little Tsunade wasn’t. He looked down at Doggy who had earned a little bit of Sasuke’s respect by following him and managing to catch up with Sasuke when Sasuke stopped in front of this hut.

‘Can you smell anyone else in the area?’ He asked.

The animal looked back up at him with uncomprehending eyes and wagged its tail hopefully.

 All Sasuke’s new respect disappeared. ‘When this is over, I swear I am swapping you for a real ninja dog that’ll know how to protect my daughter.’

The dog’s tail stopped wagging.

Sasuke sighed. ‘Okay. Maybe I’ll give Kiba a chance to train you and prove that he didn’t give Naruto a dud puppy.’

The dog whined and Sasuke was almost tempted to join in. Naruto had done it on a rare occasion when he was tired, but never before had Sasuke’s mind slipped so he spoke about a dead person as if they were still alive.

This was not the time to lose concentration. He squared his shoulders, unsheathed his katana and strode into the hut.

The place had the underlying woody scent of all these places, but it was overpowered by the smells of wet paint and Naruto. It wasn’t Naruto’s usual aroma, the only words Sasuke could think of were sweating and scared to describe it.

The dog sat outside one of the doors and Sasuke nodded. That’s where the strongest scent was coming from. He kicked the door open and froze.

He saw nothing but Naruto laying naked on the floor with another naked man lying on top of him.

Sasuke’s heart stopped beating. This was why… _this_ was why Naruto hadn’t come back to him. Their daughter was missing and  this was what Naruto was doing.

Flames the colour of despair engulfed the body of the man touching Naruto…the man whose hand was so casually resting on Naruto’s hip…and his mouth so close to Naruto’s nipples…his legs draped between Naruto’s open thighs…and…

The dog ran forward howling putting his mouth around Naruto’s nearest wrist and tried to pull him away from the burning body above him.

Sasuke’s heart beat again. It pounded. He leapt forward and yanked both Naruto and the hound away from the flames. Both of their bodies were burning hot, but neither of them were singed. Whatever Sasuke had done at least he hadn’t hurt the man he loved.

Despite what that man had done to him. To their family. He pushed Naruto away. The blonde fell limp to the ground.

‘You can’t stand up? Did your new boyfriend fuck you that hard?’ Sasuke’s voice was twisted and ugly. ‘Did he fuck you so hard that you forgot your daughter had been kidnapped and your friends murdered? I hope you have happy memories of it, because it’s never happening again. He’s black ash now.’

Suddenly Naruto jerked into life he screamed out an agonised, ‘No!’ and ran towards the flickering flames.

Sasuke wrapped both his arms around Naruto and had to use all his strength and technique to stop the blonde throwing himself into the dark fire.

‘You’ve ruined everything! What have you done? You’ve ruined everything!’ Naruto repeatedly yelled out as he fought and struggled against Sasuke.

‘It’s you who’ve ruined everything, Uzumaki Naruto! I thought you needed me and I find you shacked up with your whore.’

The flames vanished and there was nothing left of the man that Sasuke had discovered lying with his boyfriend. He kicked Naruto forward.

Naruto fell to his knees scrubbing his hand desperately over the place where his new lover had been. ‘I needed him. I needed him.’

‘Yes, you’re making that very clear.’ Sasuke felt the flames rising within him as his eyes fixed on the naked form of his lover.

He clenched his teeth and fought against his anger. He wouldn’t burn Naruto. He couldn’t allow himself to do that. There had been no conscious decision when Naruto’s lover had been the target of his revenge, and even if there had been, he knew he wouldn’t have stopped his power. But this was Naruto, this was the man who had borne a child for him, this was the idiot who’d kissed him when they were kids and instantly made the world a better place.

‘I needed him,’ Naruto kept repeating.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed, drawn to the perfect curves of Naruto’s buttocks, there were red hand marks on them. Not Sasuke’s hands. But this other man who had touched his lover. Or was it someone else? How many lovers had Naruto taken? Was it better if there was only one or if there’d been lots? Sasuke remembered how they’d played together before Kiba had arrived, how he’d teased Naruto, how fun it’d seemed keeping the blonde on edge. But Naruto had obviously decided he wanted to play another game with other people.

Small flames danced around the outline of where his boyfriend was sitting. The blonde didn’t notice, he just kept scratching at the floor as if he could dig down and find the man Sasuke had killed.

There was a thump. Sasuke’s eyes flicked across to where the dog had knocked some sort of easel over. A large painting of Naruto fell down on the floor. Almost immediately Naruto was on it threading it with sharp kyubi claws.

‘Teme! Don’t look at it! I don’t want you to see it! You mustn’t see it!’ Naruto cried out as he destroyed the picture.

However, Naruto hadn’t been fast enough. Sasuke had seen it. It was a full length nude of Naruto. One of Naruto’s hands tried to cover his crotch though the artist had captured every single pubic hair and glimpse of genitals that Naruto’s hand couldn’t protect. Naruto’s other hand was defensively over his chest concealing the pink circles of his nipples. The blonde’s beautifully strong body was shown in all its muscular contours, but Naruto’s posture made him look heart achingly fragile. And then there was his face. The skin was so pale, his mouth downturned so that it was almost unrecognisable. But for the eyes that behind their pensiveness held the steely determination to be strong that was all Naruto.

For the first time Sasuke looked properly around the room. There were other pictures over the wall, some completed, some just sketches, every one of them depicting Naruto.

Naruto attacked Sasuke covering the Uchiha’s eyes. ‘Don’t look at them! Don’t look at any of them!’

Sasuke defended himself from Naruto easily, his boyfriend didn’t even display the minimal fighting skill he’d had as a twelve year old. And then even Naruto’s raw strength disappeared as he collapsed against Sasuke weeping.

‘Please, Sasuke…please…I can’t bear you…not you…to see me like that.’

Sasuke picked Naruto up in his arms and carried him out of the hut that burnt behind them. Only as an afterthought did the Uchiha look down and see that the dog had made it out in time and was trotting behind them holding Naruto’s orange clothes in his mouth.

Sasuke leaned Naruto against a tree and took the jumpsuit from the animal. He dressed Naruto, though it was awkward and took longer than it should have because Naruto body flopped uselessly as if the blonde had forgotten how to move it or support his own weight. Sasuke managed to keep control and didn’t pause to examine all the small marks he noticed over Naruto’s skin.

 _They’ll heal_ , he told himself, _Naruto heals fast_. _Tomorrow, or the next day, nothing will be visible_.

Doggy hadn’t found, or maybe hadn’t been able to hold, Naruto’s shoes. Sasuke hadn’t even thought of such things. He just needed to get Naruto away from there and have the whole place gone. Sasuke moved forward to lift Naruto up again, but Naruto sprung to life and jumped away from him.

The blonde gazed at the black scar on the ground where the hut had been. ‘What have you done, Sasuke? What have you done? Why did you have to turn up now? He was going to tell me where Lil Tsu Tsu was, I know he was going to tell me soon. Everything I’ve done…it’s been pointless. There’s nothing left to even search for clues.’ Naruto suddenly punched Sasuke hard in the stomach with enough force that Sasuke doubled over.

‘If anything happens to Lil Tsu Tsu…if she gets hurt because Sai didn’t send out his message…I will kill you, Sasuke.’

Sasuke straightened himself out. Had the man he killed been _Sai_? He thought of those paintings. There were constant rumours that some rogue ninja had mastered the resurrection jutsu. Could he hunt one down and get them to bring Sai back so he could kill him again? And again. And again. Each time making it longer and more painful.

He pushed such thoughs aside, for the moment, and put his hands on either side of Naruto’s face. ‘Itachi has a team, he is saving Little Tsunade and Himawari right now.’

Naruto’s eyes widened and some of their normal light returned. Then he frowned. ‘If that was true you’d be with them!’

Despite the weight of his spirit Sasuke smirked. ‘He didn’t want me. Our older brother has this strange misplaced idea that my emotions would be too strong and I might instinctively start killing people with no idea what I was doing and make everything worse.’

Naruto managed a smile. ‘For such a genius, Itachi does get strange ideas in his head.’ He put his forehead against Sasuke’s and spoke quietly. ‘I couldn’t really kill you, yaknow, I might try, but I couldn’t really do it.’

‘I know you couldn’t, dobe.’ Sasuke lifted Naruto into his arms. ‘You’re lucky to get a punch in against me.’

Naruto opened his mouth to snap back a reply, but sadness visibly appeared into his eyes as if he was remembering things he didn’t want to.

‘Are you sure that Itachi doesn’t need us?’

‘He’d be angry if we turned up. We could destroy his plan.’

Naruto nodded. Sasuke’s chest inexplicably hurt at seeing the blonde so accepting.

‘I can walk, yaknow, I don’t need you to carry me about,’ Naruto said.

‘I know,’ Sasuke replied.

Naruto rested his head against Sasuke’s shoulders. After a moment he closed his eyes and mumbled, ‘Why didn’t you come straight after me? I was sure you’d come straight after me and make everything right like you always do. Me and you together, can beat anyone, yeah?’

Sasuke had nothing he could say. He leapt up into a tree and took his boyfriend home.

 

***

The days passed somehow both painfully slowly and too fast. Sasuke hadn’t realised how good that first day had been, when Naruto had allowed him to undress and bathe the drowsy and confused blonde, and then get him ready for bed. Sasuke had put him in his favourite sleep wear, even digging out Naruto’s old sleeping cap and a frog cuddly toy for him.

He’d put his fiancé to bed and had laid next to him. Naruto had clung onto the soft toy but also managed to snuggle hard into Sasuke. Sasuke  had put an arm around him and stroked him as gently as he ever had done in all their time together.

Then Itachi bought Little Tsunade home. Sasuke shook his boyfriend awake. Pure joy lit up all of Naruto’s features, and then his eyes creased closed and he shook his head.

‘I can’t, I can’t see her, I can’t,’ Naruto mumbled.

‘She’s your daughter. She doesn’t care about…whatever happened with Sai. She just wants to be with you,’ Sasuke tried.

But Naruto wouldn’t budge.

Every time he came to Naruto, Naruto shook his head and told him to go back to Little Tsunade as she needed him. And she did.

Itachi explained in great detail about the power he suspected Sasuke’s daughter posessed because of her unique conception, how it was too much for her young body and mind to cope with so she needed far more attention and guidance than a normal ninja child. Sasuke did not question how Itachi knew, or ask what had happened to the people who had kidnapped the children, that was understood between them by one simple look.

Before he left Itachi turned and said, ‘Naruto?’

Moments passed until Sasuke was able to reply in a composed voice, ‘He’s sleeping.’

Itachi nodded and was gone.

Sasuke lavished all the love and attention on his daughter that he couldn’t give Naruto. After that first day, if Sasuke moved to caress his fiancé, Naruto flinched away. If he shared a bed, Naruto huddled under the covers on the other side. Sasuke took to sleeping in a chair in Little Tsuande’s room and then in the first light of dawn going back to his own bedroom and watching Naruto turn and moan in his sleep. At these moments, Naruto would sometimes let Sasuke squeeze his hands and speak calming words to him, but equally as often the blonde’s eyes would flicker open and he would yank his hand away from Sasuke and curl up in a tight ball burrowed under sheets and out of Sasuke’s sight.

Once Sasuke found Naruto shivering naked under a cold icy shower. He took a deep intake of breath when he saw the bruises and marks from Sai’s cabin, hadn’t healed. In some places they looked worse. But he calmed his heart and carried Naruto out of the shower and wrapped him in fluffy towels he warmed on the radiator. But Naruto kept shivering even when Sasuke had completely dried him and dressed him in bed clothes.

‘Let me hold you tonight, please,’ Sasuke whispered in his lover’s ear.

It had been a mistake to speak. Naruto jumped away from him startled and looked at Sasuke with wide, almost angry, definitely frightened, eyes.

‘Go to Lil Tsu Tsu, she needs you. You shouldn’t be wasting time with me.’

And those were all the words his boyfriend would say.

Sasuke walked away, cursing himself for all the times he’d complained that his dobe spoke too much and too loudly.

Then Hinata visited with Himawari. She went straight to Naruto in the bedroom. Sasuke managed to wait half an hour before he went up to check on them. The door hadn’t been shut properly. He found himself pausing and peering through the crack instead of walking in.

Hinata was holding a sleeping Himawari with one arm, with the other she was supporting Naruto. Naruto’s body trembled with sobbing. Silent tears fell down Hinata’s face, but she spoke in a clear and calm voice.

‘You had no choice, your daughter’s life was in danger. I would have done the same and so much more,’ she said.

‘No, you wouldn’t have.’ Naruto’s voice was an animal whine. ‘You’d have seen straight away that Sai was lying. That he was a distraction. All part of a false trail laid to catch me as they knew how stupid I am.’

‘Naruto kun,’ she pronounced the names so softly, Sasuke had to strain to hear. ‘When I saw Kiba and Akamaru something inside me broke and it’s remained broken. In that moment, even my love for Himawari wasn’t enough to keep me strong. For the rest of my life I’ll be reliving that day and be weighed down by guilt. I did everything wrong, and it’ll always be wrong. You immediately sprang into action and tried to do everything right.’

There was mumbling that even Sasuke with his enhanced ninja senses couldn’t hear, before Hinata said in a louder voice, ‘Sasuke has nothing to forgive you for. And if he thinks he does…Kiba always said you could do a lot better than him…and if Sasuke blames you for anything…then walk away from him, Naruto, and never look back. I mean that, just walk away from him with no fucking regrets.’

Sasuke stepped away from the door and returned to where his daughter was playing trying to stack blocks. He picked her up and put her on his lap and cooed at her, guiding her tiny hands with his own. Everything about him was happy, in fact much happier than anyone outside his family ever saw him. But his heart was bleeding at witnessing his boyfriend’s distress. There were twinges of pain as his mind continually replayed the normally timid Hinata spitting out the words, ‘ _just walk away from him with no fucking regrets_ ’. More than anything else though, it was the all too familiar agony of jealousy. He was angry at Naruto for talking to Hinata when he remained silent with Sasuke. He was raging that his fiancé, the one love of his whole life, trusted someone else more than he trusted Sasuke. He had to fight the too real urge to run to the bedroom pull Hinata away from Naruto, chuck her out of the house, before proceeding to claim his lover back the one way he knew how, by fucking him roughly into the mattress. He needed so much to hear Naruto scream out his name.

‘Poggy?’ Little Tsunade said gazing up at him.

Sasuke smiled and ran his hand through her bright hair. ‘Sorry, sweetheart, I’m all yours. Let’s get these blocks all stacked.’

He helped her pick up a blue cube and together they chose where to put it as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world.


	6. Chapter 6

Sasuke gazed at his naked body in the full length mirror. He wanked one hand steadily up and down his erection, but there was no pleasurable response within him. After a few minutes he stopped and pinched his fingers across his brow.

He stared at his reflection and tried to imagine big blue eyes were looking back at him, instead of dark troubled ones.

‘Naruto…dobe…it’s been long enough…when are we going to start fucking again?’ He sighed heavily. ‘I need you in my arms, I can’t carry on like this.’

He thumped a fist against the wall, lightly enough that he did no damage, too lightly to give him any relief. He wished he could kick the whole damn wall down.

At least Naruto left the house today. At least he was spending time with their daughter. Hinata had managed to convince Naruto to take Little Tsunade and Himawari for a walk.

Sasuke’s teeth ground together. All his own attempts to lure Naruto outside had failed.

He got dressed and tried to absorb the logic that it didn’t matter who had motivated Naruto, only that someone had. But his chest hurt. The truth was that he didn’t like Little Tsunade out of his sight. Right now he didn’t even like Naruto out of his sight.

He didn’t want Naruto to think he doubted him, but Sasuke found himself, almost beyond his control, jumping across rooftops and tracking his boyfriend.

Sasuke found them too easily, any enemy with average skills would be able to take them by surprise. But, no, he couldn’t think like that, Itachi had told him the threat had been completely wiped out and if he couldn’t trust his brother than he couldn’t trust anyone.

Hinata and Naruto were moving slowly, normal citizens were overtaking them. Both the little girls were dangling from Naruto’s neck and Hinata was incredibly close to Naruto helping the children balance. All four of them were laughing. They looked like a family. A _normal_ family. Not a raw with grief new widow accompanying  her damaged friend on his first trip out since the kidnapping of his child. A _normal_ family. One composed of a man and a woman and two naturally conceived children.

Sasuke turned away and leaped down several streets away. Without pausing or thinking he walked into a bar, ordered a drink and sat down in the corner. His eyes automatically scanned the clientele. After his initial and quick summation that he was the only ninja, indeed the only skilled fighter, present, he took a more lengthy and different kind of examination of the people.

From a very young age he’d always drawn a certain type of attention, and for most of his life he’d been contemptuous and dismissive of it. All he’d wanted was Naruto. Then there had been the slip. Lots of slips. When he’d considered that him and Naruto were finished. He didn’t know what him and Naruto were now. They were still officially engaged. But the weeks were passing and his _fiancé_ was refusing to talk to him let alone touch him.

There was a woman standing alone with long straw coloured hair. She’d chosen clothes to reveal as much of her figure as possible without simply leaving her house naked. She had a mild resemblance to Naruto’s sexy jutsu. Sasuke hated the thing and Naruto generally only transformed in to it to annoy him, but for some reason, in his current mood there was something arousing in the cheap sordidness of it.

Sasuke stood up and gave the woman an unmistakable gaze. A smile spread over her features. She no longer looked anything like Naruto, Naruto could never look so predatory and feline. She turned her hips swaying as she walked out of the bar, obviously confident that Sasuke was going to follow her.

‘Don’t repeat your mistakes, Otouto.’ The voice was a soft whisper in Sasuke’s ear. Its tone was entirely neutral, but Sasuke blanched as if he’d been attacked by an unassailable opponent.

‘I don’t know what to do, niisan.’ Sasuke’s lips barely moved as he spoke.

‘Yes you do. Be honest. Show him your heart.’ There was an almost unperceivable flap of bird wings and then nothing.

Sasuke left by a different exit to the woman and went straight home.

***

Sasuke stroked his daughter’s forehead until she fell asleep. He checked the window was secure then drew the blackout blind down. For a moment he glanced at the neatly folded pile of blankets on the chair that had become his customary resting place and then walked with firm steps to the bedroom he was supposed to share with his lover.

There was a curled up lump in the middle of the bed entirely covered by the duvet.

Before anything else Sasuke picked up the clothes that were dropped over the floor and took them to the laundry bin. ‘Hnnnn, dobe, if you’re going from the type of drastic personality change where you go from being in love with the sound of your own voice to complete silence, could you not at least also go from messy slob to someone who starts putting things away?’

A grunt came from underneath the covers. A small smile appeared on Sasuke’s face. It wasn’t much but that was the argumentative sound of the man he’d known all his life, not the broken person he’d discovered with Sai. It was enough for Sasuke to continue with what he’d determined to do tonight.

He tugged at the duvet. ‘Either you’re coming out, or I am coming in.’

Sasuke remained still. And so did Naruto. After Naruto had given him another chance, Sasuke had vowed to be a man of his word, and this could be no exception. Though he’d rather pull the covers away, he burrowed under them and curled his body around Naruto’s, his chest against the curve of Naruto’s spine. Unlike previous times, Naruto was not clothed from socks to night cap, he wore a pair of lounge pants and that was all.

Sasuke ran his hand around the waist band. ‘You’re losing muscle.’

‘Huh? Is that what you care about? I’m not going to be attractive for you?’ Naruto said, his body motionless. ‘Will you leave me alone if I get skinny enough?’

Sasuke swallowed but his voice retained its Uchiha control. ‘No. I care about you being the best ninja you can be as that has always been your dream and driving passion. I care about you refusing to talk to me or touch me. I care about…’

‘You’re talking and touching now, aren’t you?’ Naruto interrupted. ‘Or does this not count? Am I supposed to bend over and be spanked and teased whenever and however you want?’

Sasuke’s porcelain cheeks flushed red. ‘Naruto, you’ve not wanted me to be in bed with you, let alone…anything else. You can’t keep rejecting me.’

Naruto twisted away from Sasuke so he was now lying stretched out on his back, but still with the duvet covering both of their faces. In the closed atmosphere, Sasuke felt surrounded by Naruto’s scent, that they were breathing the same air and almost as physically close as they could be. Sasuke’s cock was hard, but if Naruto felt or noticed it he gave no reciprocal or positive response.

‘I am _not_ rejecting you, Sasuke,’ Naruto said in a strained voice. ‘I’ve asked you to put Little Tsunade’s needs before ours, while I haven’t…while I haven’t been able to…’ He coughed a couple of times, though it sounded dangerously like he could fall into sobbing, but his voice continued with more strength, ‘That is what any parent would do, look after their kid, but with no immediate sex on the cards you’ve decided you’d rather sleep in a chair than share a bed with me.’

Sasuke bit his lip to stop himself snapping back that it hadn’t been like that at all. Naruto’s eyes didn’t lie and there’d been no mistaking the look in them whenever Sasuke had even slightly leaned in for a kiss. If that wasn’t rejection, Sasuke didn’t want to know what Naruto would classify as a rebuff.

Instead of being argumentative, in a soft voice Sasuke said, ‘I promised you I’d put our daughter before you, if there was ever a choice. That is why I didn’t follow you when you ran off in a rage when we found Kiba’s body. I thought it was the best decision, that I could be helpful. You understand…’

‘We don’t need to talk about this,’ Naruto growled, looking as if he was going to roll away and curl up again.

‘We do!’ Sasuke instinctively jumped on the blonde, sitting astride him and pinning his arms above his head.

Naruto didn’t resist, in a way it would have been better if he had, if they could have got into a familiar physical tussle which had been one of their most trusted forms of communication since they were kids. But Naruto stared up at him with wide blue eyes that were on the verge of fear.

‘Dobe…dobe.’ Sasuke released Naruto’s hands but remained sitting astride him. He was ashamed at how hard and obvious his cock was even as his emotions were in turmoil and all his thoughts were on regaining his fiancé’s trust. ‘Are you falling in love with Hinata?’

Sasuke’s own eyes widened. He had no idea where that question had come from, but now he’d asked it, he waited breathless for Naruto’s reply.

Naruto’s reply which took a long time coming. The blonde looked to the side before he finally met Sasuke’s gaze.

‘She’s easier to be with than you.’

The strength left Sasuke’s body. He slumped sideways, and even though he would have only fallen on the mattress, Naruto caught the brunette in his arms and held him tightly against his chest. It was the first truly affectionate contact that had originated from Naruto since Sai, but Sasuke couldn’t enjoy it.

‘You should be with her…it makes sense.’ Sasuke mumbled. ‘Everything we went through, everything _you_ went through and today I considered cheating on you again because I was jealous of seeing you happy with Hinata and couldn’t cope.’  

Tiny claws dug into Sasuke’s skin.

‘I didn’t do anything, it was no more than a look in the end, but I could have.’ Sasuke glanced down at the little specks of blood on the tips of Naruto’s nails.

Naruto forced a laugh. ‘You remember before…before this whole thing…it was you teasing me and refusing to give me satisfaction, now I hope you realise how great I was about that. You can’t even last a couple of days without trying to fuck someone else!’

‘It’s been weeks not days, dobe.’

Naruto frowned. ‘Really? I’m not doing very well then, am I?’

 Sasuke stroked his hand through Naruto’s hair. ‘You’re doing amazing. You’re always amazing. It’s me that’s still a lost child, not knowing how to cope and jealous of Hinata, because she can reach you and I can’t.’ Sasuke moved his fingers to touch the tips of Naruto’s. ‘I want to promise you I’ll be better, that I’ll deal with you leaving me in a mature manner, but I’ve broken enough promises to you already without making more I won’t be able to keep to.’

Naruto laughed again, this time it was a more genuine sound. ‘This is why it’s easier with Hinata, when we talk there’s never a conversation that goes from saying how amazing I am, to casually talking about us splitting up!’ Naruto pushed Sasuke onto his back and sat astride him in a mirror of Sasuke’s earlier position. ‘Last time when you decided you’d had enough of me I was in a much better emotional starting place than now and I spent months crying and then got myself pregnant, I’ve no idea what shit I’d get up to if you bailed on me now, so don’t even think about it!’

Sasuke caressed Naruto’s wrists. ‘Aren’t you listening to me? I was going to have sex with a random woman today, I needed Itachi to stop me. I love you so much, and that’s still the person I am. You need to take Little Tsunade and leave me.’

‘That’s impossible. If you’d fucked every single person you met today, I’d still be yours. It’s the way it is, teme, neither of us can change it, and I don’t want to.’ The growl left Naruto’s voice and his eyes became a pale washed out blue. ‘Did you need to seek…relief with someone else because you can’t be with me without thinking about…that painting that…that _he_ did of me? I get it…I can get it…if you don’t want sex with me, but need it with other people…I live with all the flings you had after you left me…I can get used to you…’

‘Naruto, if you say anymore I will punch you. _Hard_. Don’t you dare start putting up with my fucked up crap. I want to be the best person I can for you, not having you _getting used_ to me being a bastard. And where the hell did you get the idea that I don’t want sex with you? That is a new level of stupidity even for you. Every second of every day I want to be close to you. I’ve just been trying to give you some space…you haven’t been your affectionate self and I can hardly carry on spanking you like I was before…’

‘Why not? I want it to be the same. I _need_ it to be the same.’ Tears fell from Naruto’s eyes. He brushed them away with the back of his hand. ‘My new level of stupidity was believing what Sai told me. I did things I didn’t want to do, Sasuke, because I thought I had no choice, that it was the only way to protect our daughter. I need to do the things I want to do with the person I want to do them with again…but I’m so scared that you’ll be different with me, that I destroyed something and…’

Sasuke pulled Naruto down on top of him and kissed his fiancé with rough passion. Naruto paused for a moment and then his tongue was thrusting just as vigorously into Sasuke’s mouth.

Sasuke took a breath and put his hands on Naruto’s shoulders. ‘We’re going to talk about this properly, I do promise that, but I want you too much right now to think about anything beyond my cock. Fuck me raw and hard.’

Naruto twisted his mouth to the side. ‘I don’t know, I am a little tired after my walk out with Hinata, and, yaknow, I’m not sure that I can be bothered, maybe tomorrow.’

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed.

Naruto chuckled. Using his strength and swiftness he flipped Sasuke onto his front and pulled the Uchiha’s pants down.

‘I don’t know what this is going to be like, where I am mentally, emotionally, or whatever, I’ll just say, hold on tight, Teme, this could be a mad ride.’

‘Isn’t that our whole relationship?’

‘Yeah, I guess it is.’ Naruto ran his thumb down the crease between Sasuke’s buttocks. ‘So no complaining, you should be used to it by now.’

After a moments fumbling, Naruto replaced his thumb with his erection, pressing it against his lover with a groan.

Sasuke pressed backwards into the blonde. He’d been fantasising about claiming back his fiancé as his own, but the precum already dripping from his cock revealed that this was what he really needed and wanted: Naruto’s fierce and fiery desire possessing him.

‘I’m sorry,’ Sasuke gasped as Naruto began rubbing his cock over Sasuke’s hole. ‘I’m sorry Usuratonkachi, for everything that’s happened and everything that I’m going to do wrong. I wish I was a better man for you.’

Naruto leaned over him and bit his ear sharply. ‘We love each other. It’s not easy with us, but it’s somehow perfect and you’re all I’ve ever wanted.’

The blonde bucked his hips and thrust his length into the Uchiha. Sasuke yelled out with blind lust and pain.

‘Fuck, you’re so tight,’ Naruto moaned. He gripped Sasuke’s hips, holding his lover still as he rammed into him. ‘Fuck. Forget that crap I just said about being willing to share you, you’re mine and only mine.’

Sasuke attempted to agree, but the only sounds he could make were loud groans. Naruto was taking him with all his strength and energy. Sasuke couldn’t believe that mere hours ago he’d contemplated having sex with someone else, or that he’d seriously thought that his fiancé would leave him for Hinata. Through everything it would always be him and Naruto, that was just the way it was, there were no other options. And as every inch of Naruto plunged into him, Sasuke yelled out his pleasure at this life that had given him such an unceasingly amazing man.  


	7. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is three scenes to conclude this story, which (hopefully it'll be clear!) are set years apart.

Naruto was literally jumping up and down. ‘Aren’t you excited, teme? I know you are, I know you’ve got to be. You can keep your sexy Uchiha cool for almost all the time, but promise me you’ll smile in the wedding photos. I want our grandchildren and our great grandchildren and our great great grandchildren all to be able to see how happy you are to be my wife. Promise, promise, promise!’

Sasuke raised one eyebrow and readjusted his fiancé’s clothes for the tenth time in the last few minutes. ‘Try and act like a normal respectable person for one day. Kimonos are not meant for bouncing up and down in.’

Naruto laughed, his blue eyes becoming even brighter. ‘I’ll remind you of that after the wedding feast when you are pulling me into bed. No bouncing. And I’m pretty sure that normal _respectable_ people should go nicely to sleep and shouldn’t spend the night guzzling their lover’s come!’

Sasuke put his hands on Naruto’s ass and pulled the other man sharply against his groin. ‘If you make another joke about not fucking me tonight, I’m going to bend you over right now and pound you so hard you won’t be able to talk for the rest of the day.’

 Naruto continued to laugh, but there was no mistaking the lust dancing in his eyes. His voice was also full of more sexual teasing than mockery. ‘What one month without touching my naked body and the great Uchiha Sasuke doesn’t even have the willpower to get through an extra day or two of abstinence?’

‘It’s been 43 days, dobe, since you decided that our wedding night would be more special if we didn’t share a bed until our honeymoon. And I know you feel it as much as me, yesterday when I came to wake you for breakfast you were dry humping a pillow in your sleep and moaning out my name.’ Sasuke smiled a superior smile, but the cuteness of Naruto’s face as the blonde blushed and mumbled excuses about not being responsible for what he dreamed about, made it extremely difficult to release his hold on his fiancé’s buttocks.

Sasuke may even have given in to his lust. No emotion he’d ever experienced came close to comparing to the strength of love he had for Naruto, and that love expressed itself in a constant physical desire to be close to him. But his yearning was shattered by Kakashi appearing at the window and staring in at them.

The silver haired shinobi chuckled. ‘Well, I’ve won my bet with Sakura. She, and plenty of others were certain that you two haven’t appeared yet because you’d got distracted by each other looking too hot in your wedding clothes. But I knew after all this planning you wouldn’t let all your guests down.’ Kakashi gave Sasuke a pointed look with an arched eyebrow. ‘Seeing as I am here, I may as well be the first to offer my congratulations that you finally got your shit together and are doing this. You do both look incredibly handsome together.’ With that Kakashi disappeared.

Naruto’s blush deepened, he rubbed the back of his head, knocking askew the delicate blossoms Ino had spent a long time weaving into Naruto’s rebellious hair. ‘Sasuke kun… why haven’t we gone out yet...are you having…doubts…I called you _my wife_ and you didn’t even notice…are you sure this is….I am….what you want…forever?’

Sasuke had been having doubts. Naruto did look incredibly handsome. What right did he have to bind this perfect man to him when Sasuke had done so much wrong? Deliberately hurt him. Failed to protect him. Broken important promises, the only ones that mattered to the only person that mattered. But the uncertainty of Naruto’s voice galvanised everything and made it all clear.

‘There is no forever without you, dobe.’ Sasuke pinched Naruto’s bum making the blonde jump. ‘And you know that, you don’t ever have to question it. The only reason we’re waiting here is for you to calm down, you’re an over excited toddler. Little Tsunade is more restrained than you.’

Naruto looked like he was going to protest but instead he giggled. ‘We’re never going to get married if you wait for me to calm down! I know we’ve been together for a long time, teme, and being married won’t make any difference to us, but this feels so special. I mean, knew it’d be special, but I didn’t expect it to feel sooo…’

‘Like our life is just about to begin,’ Sasuke finished for him.

The two men looked at each other for a moment as if they were shy teenagers who had just kissed for the first time.

Then Naruto threw his arms around Sasuke with an undisguised squeal, and all Sasuke could do was laugh with pure happiness.

Sasuke didn’t bother readjusting his fiancé’s appearance for the eleventh time. They touched the tips of their fingers together and walked out of the door. Or at least, Sasuke walked, Naruto half bounced, half skipped.

The crowd of people cheered at their appearance. Naruto waved and shouted out greetings as if they were at a party not a wedding ceremony. Sasuke kept a tight grip of Naruto’s hand, fearing his lover would get carried away and disappear into the mass of his friends. But no, he knew instinctively Naruto would not leave his side today. When Naruto fist bumped Killer Bee, and gave a surprised Gaara a hug, he pulled Sasuke with him, and in turn Sasuke pulled him in the right direction towards the front.

Sasuke smiled at his brother, his daughter, and his nieces and nephews. He cared that they were there, but beyond them, he hardly focused on anyone. He was surprised by the butterflies in his stomach. Naruto boomed out his vows, Sasuke had to use all of his Uchiha reserve just to be able to manage to whisper the words. When he signed the marriage certificate the pen shook in his hand. Naruto put a steadying hand over his. Sasuke murmured a thank you and leant his whole body into the warmth of his lover, who had once been nothing more than the stupidest most annoying kid in their class, but who was now his husband.

He whispered in Naruto’s ear, ‘If you want me to be your _wife_ tonight, I will be honoured to give my _husband_ happiness.’

‘No, no, I want you to fuck me, because that’s how it was with our real first time, you convincing me to do anal when I still thought it sounded disgusting.’ Naruto probably thought he was being as quiet as Sasuke, He wasn’t.

Little Tsunade covered her face with her hands. His nieces and nephews were giggling. Itachi actually laughed.

There were a mixture of wolf whistles, groans and cheers from the crowd.

Sasuke turned Naruto to face him. ‘I love you, Sunflower.’

Naruto beamed. ‘I love you, Tulip.’

Sasuke smiled, ‘My wedding present to you is that for the next twenty four hours you can use as many pet names as you want.’

‘You sure about that?’

‘Totally.’

‘Thank you, sugarlips, I adore my gift, and will make total use of it, honeybuns.’ Naruto leaped into Sasuke’s arms. ‘I’ll give you my present tonight. First, I am going to…’

Sasuke quickly kissed his new husband before Naruto could say another word.

 

***

 

Sasuke lay in bed with his eyes closed, but he was fully aware he wouldn’t get any rest with the shouting match going on downstairs. Who knew having a sixteen year old daughter could be so difficult? Only everyone.

Even Itachi had mentioned that the teen years could be a strain, although Sasuke had never seen even a hint of any of his nieces or nephews arguing with either of their parents, let alone anything close to the raging rows Naruto and Little Tsunade had.

Sasuke remained still, but listening. It caused his heart to ache hearing the two people he loved the most tearing verbal strips off each other. He tried to think logically about how long he should leave them to work out their differences this time, before he intervened.

The answer came with the emotional pain constricting his chest when he heard Naruto yell, ‘Do you even care how ill your behaviour is making your Pops?’

But Sasuke had only managed to push himself up into a sitting position before doors slammed, feet stomped upstairs, and Naruto flung himself face down on the bed beside Sasuke as if he was the disgruntled teenager rather than the mature parent.

Sasuke lay down on his side and rubbed Naruto’s back. ‘Keep reminding yourself how much she loves you. This isn’t a personal thing. She’s just trying to form her own identity away from us.’

‘Away from _me_.’ Naruto turned his head to reveal his tear stained face to Sasuke. ‘She adores you, because you always give her what she wants, even when what she wants is the worse boyfriend possible.’

Sasuke caressed fingers over the tears on Naruto’s face. ‘Dobe, we were younger than her when we chose each other, what would…’

Naruto growled. ‘Don’t Teme, just don’t. It’s nothing like you and me, she’s just going with that _thing_ because she knows how angry it makes me.’

‘I remember how we reacted when people told us we couldn’t be together, that it was wrong because we were both boys. And I don’t know about you, but I am certain as much as I respected and loved my parents, if they’d been alive to disapprove of you and me, after the first discussion I’d have packed my bags and moved into that cesspit of a room you lived in and never looked back.’ Sasuke stroked Naruto’s hair. ‘Fortunately, Tsunade is more you than me, and she’s trying really hard to get you to give her boyfriend a chance because she wants us all to be happy together.’

Naruto groaned. ‘The thing I hate most about this, yaknow, is that you’re being the reasonable one. I can talk to and understand psychopaths, but however determined I start out to stay calm, I end up having horrible arguments with my beautiful, cute daughter. How is it that you can stand seeing our gorgeous girl kissing _it_?’

‘If it was Hinata talking to you about Himawari…’

Naruto made a disappointed whimper. ‘Lil Tsu Tsu and Himawari are such good friends, why couldn’t they be girlfriends too? That would be perfect.’

‘I know that you’d be advising her to give Himawari a chance to find love with the security of knowing that her mum was there for her through all the good and bad,’ Sasuke continued. ‘I know that if she referred to a person her daughter cared for as an _it_ or a _thing_ , you would in very careful and long detail tell her how wrong she was and how much you understand from your own childhood as a jinchuriki how hurtful such reactions are. And that’s what I focus on, the things my wise and kind husband would say, if I let my inner concerns rage out…I believe you inadvertently saved Mitsuki’s life in this way, as I definitely would have burnt him alive with the shock of accidentally coming across him kissing Little Tsunade that first time.’

Naruto rolled onto Sasuke’s chest. ‘It’s Orochimaru’s clone though, teme, Orochimaru’s clone.’

Sasuke kissed the top of Naruto’s head. ‘ _He’s_ Orochimaru’s clone. But the more important thing is that he’s our daughter’s friend. You liked him until they started dating, I recall you shouted down anyone who you thought was prejudice against him because of his parent and his birth. Perhaps the way we found each other as lonely orphans, our Tsunade has found someone who understands what it’s like not to have the normal requirements of a mother and father. We have to trust her judgement, dobe, and make him our friend too. If you weren’t so emotionally scared for her, I know that is what _you’d_ be telling me.’

Naruto lifted his head and looked into Sasuke’s face. ‘You’ve never called me wise before. You must be feeling really ill today.’ He smiled but then said in a soft voice. ‘Have your eyes been bleeding again?’

For answer Sasuke put his arms around Naruto and pulled him close against his chest.

‘I’m not too heavy for you?’ Naruto asked as he snuggled against his husband.

‘No. You could never be too heavy for me to hold,’ Sasuke replied.

‘Do you remember when we were younger and used to argue all the time about everything?’ Naruto said. ‘It seems so long ago.’

Sasuke smirked. ‘I remember last year when you punched a hole in the wall because I wouldn’t let you have sweets for dinner.’

‘It was barely a hole, just like a tiny crack…and you allowed Lil Tsu Tsu to have honey covered ramen for dinner while all I had was a plate of seeds and grass,’ Naruto grumbled. ‘She has you so twisted around her little finger.’

‘I know.’ Sasuke ran his hands over Naruto’s torso. ‘She reminds me too much of you and I want her to have the perfectly happy childhood you missed out on.’

They were quiet for a while just holding each other and lightly touching.

Naruto coughed a couple of times and then said in an unusually shy voice, ‘Do you remember all the making up we did after our arguments too? And how Kakashi used to give us lectures on the inn rooms we demolished because we were so…vigorous.’

‘I remember last month Little Tsunade insisting we book her a room on the opposite side of the hotel to us when we were at the spa, and her absolute embarrassment when we checked out and you loudly explained to the receptionist why the bed was broken and on the balcony.’

Naruto laughed and then in a totally serious voice asked, ‘How bad are you really feeling?’

‘If this conversation is your attempt at saying you want cheering up after your argument, then my reply is that I am so happy for you to seduce me, dobe, but tonight you may have to do all the work.’

Naruto looked with worried eyes at Sasuke. The mental pain of seeing Naruto’s concern was far worse than any of the physical problems he was facing.

Sasuke pulled Naruto in for a long passionate kiss. ‘Although I’m certain if you work hard enough you have the skills to inspire my body into action.’

Naruto’s eyes sparkled. He always responded to a challenge. And as Naruto’s head moved downwards and began slurping over Sasuke’s cock, Sasuke felt the truth of the words he’d only said to reassure his husband.

The heat of Naruto’s mouth, the expert darting of his tongue, and the skilled fondling of his hands, made every other sensation disappear from Sasuke.

‘Ride me,’ Sasuke ordered.

Naruto immediately obeyed, reaching for the lube and quickly preparing himself to take Sasuke. He lowered himself carefully onto his husband’s erection, but Sasuke got a firm grip on Naruto’s hips, holding the blonde still as he fucked hard and furious up into his husband.

Naruto responded with delicious moans of pleasure, his eyes rolling back in his head and his cock glistening with pre-cum.

It was the start of a glorious night, when Sasuke completely forgot how badly his body was beginning to fail him.

 

***

Sasuke was sleeping on top of the covers. The bandages on his eyes were white with no sign of blood leaking through. He wore nothing but an old pair of Naruto’s lounge pants. Naruto smiled at the sight of the bright orange neon garment decorated with bright green neon frogs. He hadn’t seen them for ages, had assumed Sasuke had thrown them out in one of his cleaning sessions, but his husband had kept them somewhere and was now wearing them.

It always made his heart beat a little faster to see Sasuke in his clothes. The perfectly handsome Uchiha wearing Naruto’s scruffy clothes made him feel Sasuke’s love and need for him in a way Naruto couldn’t put words to. He knew he shouldn’t disturb his lover when he was finally able to get some rest, but Naruto couldn’t resist touching him.

He started by kissing his toes one at a time and caressing his hand gently over Sasuke’s feet. Very slowly he worked his way up, feeling the hardness of Sasuke’s leg muscles through the material. His own cock twitched when he reached Sasuke’s groin, but he ignored his lust and moved to flicking his tongue in Sasuke’s belly button and stroking his lover’s abs and chest. He sucked on Sasuke’s fingers and nuzzled in the crook of his elbow. Naruto spent the most time though, kissing the hollow of Sasuke’s throat.

He was so engrossed in touching Sasuke, that he yelped when Sasuke moved beneath him and ran his hand through Naruto’s hair.

Sasuke smirked. His voice was quieter and hoarser than in previous days, but they still contained all the old Uchiha arrogance and superiority. ‘Glad to see your ninja senses are as alert as ever.’

Naruto’s instincts were to always reply with combative bluster, but instead he said, ‘It was selfish of me to touch you. I’m sorry I disturbed you.’

‘I’m not.’ Sasuke put his hand on Naruto’s neck and pulled him in for a long kiss.

Naruto whimpered into his husband’s mouth. ‘Hey, not fair. You know how much kissing makes you want me.’

‘Everything makes you want me. I know because I am still the same.’ Sasuke caressed Naruto’s cheek and gave a small laugh. ‘Our lives have never been traditional, but did you ever think we’d be getting lectures from our only daughter about not being _physical_ with each other?’

‘Some days, yaknow, I think she’s got more of the original Tsunade in her than either of us.’ Naruto caught Sasuke’s hand and covered his lover’s palm and wrist in kisses. ‘You’re lucky being laid up here, you were spared the long interrogation I had to go through over why I let her beloved Poggy abuse his powers for so long before getting proper training from Uncle Itachi.’

‘I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as the one I had after that party when Karin got drunk and told her in far too much detail what I was doing while you were pregnant. That was years ago and I still feel like I am on the verge of being burnt up every time I think of how she looked at me.’

Naruto laughed. ‘Yeah, you’re right, it wasn’t as bad as that. Nothing could be as bad as that. She showed that day, that she possessed both our tempers with extra Kurama and Tsunade on top, didn’t she?’ Naruto rubbed his nose against Sasuke’s. ‘I’m kinda happy she isn’t as bad as any of us though, and didn’t punch you across Konoha or turn you to ash.’

‘I’m kinda happy about that too. Because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do this.’ Sasuke pulled Naruto in for another kiss and then said in a soft serious voice. ‘She didn’t make you feel this was your fault, did she, dobe? She’s too clever to truly believe that, she was just frustrated and hurting, she’s got too used to being able to have everything her own way.’

‘And whose fault is that?’ Naruto tickled a hand over Sasuke’s side.

‘Yours, for making such a powerful child who once she understood how to work her body could do anything she wanted.’

‘Okay, I will take responsibility for passing on my awesomeness to her. I am so glad that she decided to be a healer though, I’d feel sorry for anyone who had to face her on the battlefield.’ Naruto rested his head on the pillow next to Sasuke’s. ‘Anyway, you don’t have to worry about me, she didn’t lecture me for too long, once I started telling her what you and I were doing instead of training, she suddenly decided she didn’t want to know anymore.’

Sasuke and Naruto laughed with the guilty pleasure they both shared in embarrassing their daughter, and also with the sweet memories of their young love. They danced their fingertips over each other.

‘Plus, I think when I started full out sobbing that might’ve taken the fun out of arguing with me.’ Naruto spoke lightly meaning it to be funny, but Sasuke pulled him in for a tight hug as if the blonde was crying right now.

He mumbled something that Naruto couldn’t hear, then said in a clear voice, ‘You should be enjoying the irony of this, all the time I moaned at you about eating well and looking after your body, forcing you to eat food you hate and brush your teeth when you wanted to just collapse in bed, just to mention a couple of things. And  now it’s revealed it was me who was permanently damaging my health by not understanding my powers properly, first my temper making me spontaneously combust everything, and then too late trying to train but pushing myself too hard. You have my full permission to mock me as much as you want.’

‘No.’ Naruto ran the back of his hand down the centre of Sasuke’s chest and then returned it to rest over Sasuke’s heart. ‘It’s you who should continue our girl’s lecture and moan about having chosen to spend your life with an idiot who loved you caring for him, but was never smart enough to look after you properly.’

Sasuke cupped Naruto’s head in his hands. ‘Without my dobe my life would never have started. The only thing I regret is my own stupidity and immaturity in the times I hurt you.’ He put his arms around Naruo’s shoulders and pulled him close against him again. ‘I’ve had a long life for a shinobi, a _very_ long life considering the craziness you and I have got up to. And I’ve been blessed with a happiness I don’t deserve. Lying here, I’ve been thinking about lots of things, and imagining different lives. And I can’t, not really. When I think about it, if after that first kiss, someone had given me a choice between leaving you and living a long and painless life or kissing you again but the rest of my life would be short and tortuous, I’d take the kiss. Because you are everything. And always have been.’

The breath caught in Naruto’s throat. Softly by anyone’s standards, let alone his normal voice, Naruto whispered, ‘Can I take your bandages off? If it won’t hurt you I’d really like to look into your eyes again.’

Sasuke nodded. He sat upright, and carefully between them they removed the bandages.

At first Sasuke kept his eyes closed. Naruto leaned in and placed the gentlest kisses on each eyelid. Then slowly Sasuke opened his eyes, squinting and then gradually gazing at Naruto.

The Uchiha smiled. ‘I didn’t think it was possible but you’re even more gorgeous in real life than in all the memories I’ve been dreaming about in the darkness.’

Naruto smiled shyly. ‘Can you…can you see the difference in me?’

Sasuke’s eyes widened, then narrowed. ‘What the hell have you done?’

‘I’m not a jinchuriki anymore.’ Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

‘What happened?’

‘Kurama and I spoke a lot about it, he was, yaknow, angry with me, but in the end, he understood.’

‘That’s more than I do! This was a choice? What the hell…what the fucking hell?’ In former times this would have been the point where Naruto and Sasuke started getting into a fist fight. Today the Uchiha took deep breaths, closed his eyes for a moment than looked into Naruto’s face. ‘Okay. I am losing my temper and panicking because we always believed that jinchuriki couldn’t survive without their tailed beast, if you just explain…’

‘They can’t,’ Naruto interrupted. ‘That’s kinda the point.’

What is the point?’ Sasuke tilted his head back. ‘And don’t you dare give me any answer that involves you committing suicide, because the man I’ve loved all my life never gives up and would never do something so selfish. I swear, Naruto, if you’ve done this out of some sort of self-pity because you feel sad about me dying, I _will_ burn you to cinders.

’No, you won’t. You can’t anymore. You can’t do anything anymore’ Naruto stared down at his hands, when Sasuke remained silence, he carried on speaking in the youthful determined voice he’d had since his teen years. ‘Because Kurama and I agreed to it, and Little Tsunade has super powers or whatever, we…’

Sasuke put a finger under Naruto’s chin. ‘You dragged our daughter into your stupidity?’

‘She’s got Itachi’s wisdom, she understood and was expecting it and had already worked out how to do it to give me the best chance of surviving long enough…long enough to take the journey with you.’

Sasuke shook his head.

‘With Kurama always healing me, yaknow, my body is still in the basic same shape it was twenty years ago…and I don’t want that.’ Naruto moved to kiss Sasuke but his husband turned away.

‘You didn’t talk to me about this. It sounds like you had long cosy chats with Kurama, Lil Tsu Tsu, and every random person you met on the street, but didn’t mention it once to me. Weren’t we supposed to have worked out years ago that our relationship didn’t work so well when we weren’t honest with each other?’ The bitterness and pain were clear in Sasuke’s voice. ‘Is this how you want to finish our life together?’

Naruto bit his lips. He clasped the nearest of Sasuke’s hands in his. ‘I say other people understand, they don’t, they just accept it as part of my madness. You are the only one who can understand, and that is why I couldn’t tell you until it was done. Because I know if the positions were reversed you’d find a way to do exactly the same and I would shout and rage and use all my strength to stop you. But if it was too late…Sasuke, if I couldn’t stop you, in the deepest and truest part of my heart, I’d be glad.’ Naruto swallowed back his tears. ‘Maybe you think I am a better person than I am, maybe I am not a good a person as you in the end, but I know I would rather you were with me in whatever happens next, then me there alone and you here alone.’

‘You wouldn’t be alone!’ Sasuke protested. ‘You have so many friends, you have our _daughter_ , how can you leave her? You made me promise to always put her before you and now…’

Naruto put a finger on Sasuke’s lip. ‘It doesn’t matter if my body keeps moving, I am hollow and dead without you. That would be so much more painful for her to watch. And she is doing so well in her life. She loves us, but she doesn’t need us. Not like we need each other.’ Naruto took a deep breath. ‘I’ve never felt hurt like I felt when you left me alone in an empty house. And some part of me always believed you’d come back to me. If I was left alone with no hope of seeing you again…’ Naruto’s voice broke. He coughed a couple of times, then through his tears he grinned. He reached out to the side table. ‘I almost forgot I made you something special.’ He held the used ramen pot to Sasuke’s lips and gently poured.

‘Ramen water?’ Sasuke laughed. ‘Really? You’re telling me you’re choosing to die to be with me and then giving me something you made up when you were twelve and didn’t have a clean glass in your flat? Naruto you are the most….you are the most everything.’  

Naruto gulped down some himself. ‘It is soooo good though, I don’t know why you never wanted to make it for our friends.’

‘Because it was special to us.’ Sasuke managed to move enough to take the pot from Naruto and take another sip himself with a big smile before he replaced it back on the side.

‘I’m kinda getting tired. I’m not sure how much more I can keep explaining why I am right and a genius and always make the right decisions.’ Naruto gave a lopsided smile. ‘Are we good?’

‘No, we are very wrong, and I am going to have so many things to say to you when we wake up.’

Sasuke lay back down flat on the bed and Naruto did the same, they entwined their bodies together. Sasuke brushed his fingertips over Naruto’s before linking them through each other.

‘I want you to know I’ve always thought you were a completely useless incredibly loud, and totally annoying waste of space, dobe,’ Sasuke whispered.

‘And you’ve always been an arrogant and aloof bastard who thinks you’re better than everyone else just because you’ve got a pretty face,’ Naruto replied.

‘Hnnnnn, you admit you find me attractive then?’ Sasuke smirked. ‘And for your information, idiot, I think I’m better than everyone else because of my intelligence and skills not because of my looks.’

‘Maybe, like, I find you a tiny tiny really small bit attractive.’ Naruto smiled. ‘Teme.’

‘That’s a coincidence, because I don’t think there’s ever been anyone as beautiful as you and there never will be again. So perhaps I find you a tiny tiny really small bit attractive too.’ Sasuke smiled. ‘Usuratonkachi.’

‘Sounds like it’s something that might be worth exploring.’ Naruto’s eyes were bright despite the pain shooting through his body.

‘Yes. It definitely is.’ Sasuke squeezed Naruto’s hand.

They gazed at each other for a last time, then with a shared thought they both closed their eyes and leaned their heads in so their lips were pressed together in an eternal kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, thank you and extra special sugar on top thanks for everyone who has read this far. I am so so grateful for your time.  
> I did have the plan for a really long and detailed story, but as there didn't seem to be much interest I have condensed it down as I really didn't want the people who were reading to get bored with it all. I hope the ending is still satisfactory, although it did make me sad writing it, I've enjoyed writing this angst and confused but ultimately loving pair so much.  
> But with lots more thanks because I am really that happy you've read so much of my writing, I'll leave this story alone for now. If you have time to leave any feedback it does make me very happy. Enormous hugs x


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